Lunch at Bintang Cafe and Indonesian Comedy Singers

On the weekend I had lunch with my in-lows at Bintang Cafe in Victoria Park. (my previous post about Bintang Cafe is here)  As we’re a group of 7 people, I didn’t think we could get a table easily (this place is pretty small) especially during lunch time on Saturday.  As I thought there’re packed with people (mostly Asians) and we waited outside for few minutes.

I know their popular dish is Me Ayam Jamur (egg noodle with chicken and mushroom, soup served separately), but I didn’t fell like eating wet stuff.  I ordered Kway Teow Goreng (fried kway teow noodle).  Other people ordered Gado-Gado (Indonesian salad: blanched vegetables with peanut sauce), Me Ayam Jamur with extra wontons, Bihun Goren (fried bihun noodle), Ayam Kway Teow (kway teow noodle with chicken), and omelet-looking tofu dish (my husband doesn’t remember the name of the dish).

I actually wanted to order some Ais Kacang (Malaysian/Singapore/Indonesian dessert with shaved ice with syrup, beans, etc) but I didn’t.  I didn’t really look through the menu, but I don’t think they have it on the menu.  Sister-in-low ordered Soda Gembira – a drink with special syrup, condensed milk and soda water- and it looked nice (and very sweet).  Brother-in-low ordered milk bubble tea with sago.

We ordered Tempe too.  This is a deep-fried soy bean dish and is very good for pregnant women.

Pempek.  Deep-fried fish cake with egg inside, covered with tamarind sauce.  The sauce tastes spicy, sour and sweet.  All these food remind me of Indonesia!

When we were about to finish our food, the outside started to be little noisy.  I had no idea what people were talking about, as they were speaking Indonesian.  Then my husband told me “hey! he is a famous comedian!!”

“Project Pop” is an Indonesian comedy singer group (apparently), and the gathering outside Bintang Cafe there’re one or two of Project Pop members.  I didn’t know which one was which (as I’ve never watched Indonesian tv) but father-in-low took a photo with one of the member, Udjo.

Afterwards we found out that they came to Perth to join an event held at UWA.  Hmm… I hope some Japanese comedians or celebrity come to Perth too…

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Week 20 – Photos and Paid Parenting Leave

This may sound like a joke, but it did happen.

I went to see my obstetrician the other day for a monthly check-up.  I couldn’t see bub’s face last week at Fetal Anatomy Screening, so I was hoping to have a peek at his face this time.

But!!!  As soon as the screening equipment touched my belly and the image showed up on the screen, he moved his hands toward his face again!

The image was taken above bub: the right side is the face covered with two hands, and the left side there’re two legs.  (can you see?)

I was glad to see he was fine, (well, I feel his movement very often now and I knew he was ok though) but is he that shy?  My friend actually told me that it happened to her as well.  Is this action (a fetus covering the face with two hands) common?

Yeah, and I’ve been thinking that it may be about time to finally announce my pregnancy to other people at work.  Yes, they don’t know yet.  My belly is not showing up too much at the moment.

I need to ask some questions about Paid Parenting Leave to the manager in the Sydney office (my company’s head office is in Sydney).  I need to confirm how many weeks of Paid Parenting Leave I can get (the maximum is 18 weeks), what the payment rate is (whether it’s same as the standard minimum wage that Centerlink pays), and ask her when I should (can) work until.  I’d like to work as much as possible if there is no problem.

I need to know which one is the better option for me: Baby Bonus or Paid Parenting Leave.  Although Paid Parenting Leave may seem to be higher amount than Baby Bonus, it is a taxable income so it will affect my tax and Family Tax Benefit later.  Baby Bonus, on the other hand, is non taxable income.

I don’t really like getting attention from other people while I work there, but I guess it’s a good thing.

So far I’ve put on 4.4 kg total, and been eating boiled broccoli a lot for snack.  The bub can now swallow the amniotic fluid to practice swallowing and digesting action (according to the baby book), and that’s why the baby tends to like the food that the mother was eating while pregnant.  (the taste  through the fluid) Which means, my bub may like broccoli and other vegetables when he is grown up!

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Petit Parfait and Baby Book

I had lots of leftover fruits and cream from the big birthday cake I made (post), so when my friends came to the house I made this petit parfait using those leftover.

The components are all the same: sponge cake, cream and fruits (minus the glaze).  The cream had been whipped to the decoration stage (quite hard) already, so I just squeezed out through my piping bag. 

In the afternoon, I started to work on my project: making a baby book!

Actually I was going to buy one from a shop and looked through Myer, Kiki-k, Newsagency etc including online shops, but they all sell similar looking ones with similar contents.  And, they contain some pages which I won’t use (such as “what was the news headline when the baby was born”).  I prefer putting lots of ultrasound photos, and write down little notes of what I felt, did and what the baby did each day.

So, I bought a scrap book album so that I could put photos and memo anywhere I want in the page.   It’s easy to arrange, and I can make it a whole page with just photos, or one page with a photo and the memo describing the photo.

Little notes in both English and Japanese….

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Baby Goods, Markets and Popcorn

Ummm I’m little exhausted… Exhausted from searching all the information related to the baby, and also making a list of what I need to prepare before the birth.  I think these things are never too early to be sorted out.  (and if I don’t do it now I may forget to do it later)

Luckily, my sister-in-low was about to give away or sell all the baby goods (eg: changing table, baby wraps, bottle sterilizer, un-opened box of breast pads, heaps of towels etc) that had been in her shed for 3 years, so I could take whatever I think we need for our Jr.  This helps us a lot!

When I went to her house to pick up the stuff (only what I could fit in my car), she gave me a half a bag of popcorn that she got from Canning Vale Market …  

She was telling me about this popcorn the other day.  She said it tastes salty and sweet at the same time, and very delicious.  When I munched on it, it was so nice that I couldn’t stop eating.   It’s very addictive.  It does taste salty, and sweet!

On the same day, we headed to Spud Shed in Jandakot.  It’s newly opened, and open 7 days, from 7am to 9pm!

Oh my gosh… there were soooo many people (maybe because it was Sunday afternoon).  And, the shopping cart was so huge (I couldn’t reach the bottom of the cart as it was too deep) :p

As I had heard, things were pretty cheap.  For example, potatoes ¢29/kg, carrot  ¢68/kg, Chinese vegetables ¢70 (?)/each, apple ¢99/kg, chicken breast $9.00/kg, frozen corn ¢99/kg etc etc.  It’s like a supermarket (one building) and they also sell other things such as snacks, drinks, ice cream, frozen seafood etc.  

Many people were gathering around the meat section.  You can buy a big chunk of meat (the size of those used in the restaurants) at cheap rate.

This place is not too far from my house, so I will be going back there often, I think.

630 Karel Avenue, Jandakot (Airport)

Ultrasound Screening

Although I can feel the baby’s movement, I still get nervous before the ultrasound screening.  Is he really ok?  Maybe the movement I felt was just a movement of my own belly…

I hear some horrible news about still birth.  I know I worry too much (my mum say that too), but I can’t help it (><)

At the ultrasound screening, however, Jr shows his healthy appearance.  Then I feel relieved.

At my recent ultrasound, I could hear the heart beating and observe the long legs and arms.  The Sonographer tried to take a clear picture of the baby’s face, but he kept hiding it with two hands!  As if he was too shy to show the face to the camera.

Other than the face I could see his hands and legs very clearly.  He was showing his hand to the camera as if he was saying “Stop! Stop trying to take photo of my face!”.

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Sento – Japan’s Public Bath

What I really missed this weekend was sento and onsen. I’d been wanting to wash my car (as it was already dusty when I picked it up from the dealer) and I finally had the chance to do it on Sunday.  I didn’t have any plan going out, so stayed home doing some cooking and cleaning.  Then, I spent my whole afternoon washing my car (and in-law’s car) in the yard.

It was pretty hot day and the sun beam was strong.  After washing and waxing the two cars, I was exhausted and sweating – all I could think of was taking a bath!

If I was in Japan, I would fill up the bath tub in the house and enjoy the early bath time, or head to the nearest sento. I used to go to sento often with my friends and stay there for hours.  (Read my last sento experience in Japan → sento)

Usually sento has several types of baths, including indoor and outdoor, jet bath, separated bath with different types of water, and also a bath of cold water to refresh.  My friend and I usually start with normal baths, then go outside to cool down a bit, enjoy the bath outside, then go back inside and enjoy another bath, then go to sauna room to sweat out, and take another bath before leaving.

After drying the body and getting dressed, we normally proceed to either relaxing room or dining room.

Most sento has massage chairs, and possibly napping room.  The floor of the room is tatami-matted, and people can just lye down and relax, cool down the body after taking hot baths.

The dining place inside sento is usually like izakaya.  It’s because people normally want to drink alcohol after taking bath.  The place is cozy, and anyone including family with kids can enjoy the food there.

It’s the best if your house is very close to the sento, as you will feel so sleepy after taking hot bath and eating the delicious food.

I do miss Yufuin onsen…  I wish I could go back to the quiet ryokan surrounded by only the nature.

(Read my trip to Yufuin in Kyushu Island, Japan in 2009 → 1, 2, 3, 4)

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My Appetite and a Parcel from Japan

Around Week 16, the morning sickness started to disappear and my big appetite came back.  Well, I didn’t have heavy morning sickness anyway.  It was more like “night sickness” as most of the bad stuff (tiredness, nausea, excessive sleepiness, etc) hit me after evening.

From Week 16, I could start enjoying the food again.  I often thought about what to eat for dinner during the day (yes, I really love eating), and I could eat out for almost anything.  But, around Week 18 I started to feel sick again and didn’t feel like eating anything.  All I could do in the evening was lying down on the sofa and stay still.  Is this normal?  Does morning sickness sometimes come back during the second and third trimester?

Anyway, I felt really sick until yesterday, but today I feel pretty good.  When I feel good, what I do is eat….  You will be surprised if you hear how much I eat now!  … 2 serves of Indian curry, and I still felt hungry so I had another bowl of rice with Japanese tinned fish and simmered vegetables. Afterwards I was munching on crackers until lunch.  … yes, it was my breakfast.

Another day, my husband and I bought fried chicken and chips (I know it’s not a healthy food but I had a craving for the fried stuff), and I finished mine very quickly and wasn’t satisfied at all.  I think I can eat a whole bird myself now.  

I really think it’s too much food to eat.  Should I try to control myself?  My weight, however, seems to be steady and I just put on 2 kg compared to when I was not pregnant.  

Oh, the tinned fish I mentioned above, it was from my mum!  I just received a parcel from my brother few days ago 🙂

I bought some maternity stuff from Japanese online shops, and I asked mum to put some food into the parcel and send here together.

These tinned fish are pretty expensive if you buy from Asian grocery shop here.  I personally like saba no misoni (simmered mackerel in miso) 😀

Some maternity pants, belts and bra.  Things are much cheaper to buy in Japan..

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Bento and Antique Shopping

Last week I packed a o-bento and headed to a park with my husband.

We didn’t really make destination, but ended up going to Lake Mongar area.  It was such a beautiful day, and we sat down on the grass and enjoyed the view of the lake and many birds.

I didn’t have any ingredient for bento at home, so I just made onigiri (rice balls), dashimaki (omelet), horenso-ohitashi (seasoned spinach), naruto (fish cake), and hijiki-no-nimono (seasoned hijiki seaweed).  If I had more time, I wanted to make some meat dish for my husband (karaage or meatballs) and other food.   🙁

After lunch, we went to Mt Lawley area to shop at antique shops we saw from the car the other day.  There’re few antique shops on Beaufort street.

There’re some interesting things at the shops, but some of them are quite pricy.  But, at one shop, we found some antique gadget at reasonable prices.  They are plates, kitchenware, and some ornaments.  I bought one little vase at $2.00 (it was made in Japan!), and my husband bought an antique Kodak camera.

It was pretty dusty when we bought it, but he cleaned it up and polished the leather area.  This camera was made in 1960s (?) and no longer works, but it looks good as an ornament.  

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Baking, Window Shopping, and Reading

It was another relaxing weekend for me.  The Saturday was hot, I didn’t need to wear a jacket and I saw many people enjoying the marine sports at the Swan River from freeway.

I had many banana left which were starting to have black spots, so I used them all up to bake banana bread.  It turned out to be good, I could smell the delicious cinnamon from the oven while baking.

Just after I took it out from the oven, one of my sister-in-low and her husband visited our house.  They just came back from Dubai and gave me this souvenir from Daiso which I’ve asked them to buy for me.

Wood clips.  I actually wanted a simple one (like the one Kiki-K sells), but they said that’s all they could find at Daiso.  

The left wooden clip got a motif of chef, because they know I like cooking 🙂  and, I can probably take of the rings from the wooden clips (centre on the photo) to use for papers and notebooks.

I gave them a half of the banana bread as a “thank you”, and I brought another half to another sister-in-low.  Last week she gave us tuna bake for dinner (she said she cooked too much) and it was delicious.  This banana cake was a “thank you” for the tuna bake.

Then, we headed to Subiaco.  There wasn’t anything particularly we wanted to do in Subi, but just wanted to walk around and do window-shopping.

We walked into Henry Hiccup – a toy shops for kids.  We loved the image of the shop and the product range.  

We sat down at Oriel cafe to have a cup of drink.

It was a pretty windy day, so we sat down on a couch inside.  He ordered flat white, I had fresh OJ, and a pecan tartlet to share.

At the cafe we talked about many things – this is one of the reason why we go out for a cup of coffee sometimes.  We can talk more things outside compared to when we stay at home.

After the pit-stop, we went to Borders to get inspiration from the books, and stayed there until late.   In the end of the day I was tired, but it was a good day.

My Thought about Japan and Australia – Pregnancy

I think my belly is getting bigger and bigger.  All my college don’t know that I am pregnant, so they must be thinking “oh… she put on lots of weight!”.  As it’s getting warmer here, I’m wearing just 3/4 sleeve T-shirt and it shows my body shape too well.  I’m wrapping my thin hoodie around my belly, but is it time to tell them that I am pregnant?  Or maybe I just wait until they figure out…

I read many articles and magazines about pregnancy, both Australian (Western) and Japanese.   Some of the things they say are the same, but some are totally different.  I also found that the treatment you get at hospital (or by doctor ) here in Australia is different from what you get in Japan.

Japanese pregnant women seems to be super careful about their pregnancy – if they notice something different they run to the doctor immediately to seek the advice and treatment.  But here in Perth, pregnant women seems to be more self-controlled and prepared.  The doctor here seems to be doing less compared to the doctors in Japan – this doesn’t mean that the doctors here is not as good as those in Japan.  I agree that we shouldn’t be totally depend on the doctors.  

But, I have something that keeps staying in my head for almost 1 year.  When I started bleeding during my first pregnancy, I run to an emergency hospital near my house.  I waited for a doctor for 12 hours there (true story), and when doctor came to me she just said “I’m sorry, but you seem to be having a miscarriage”.  The doctor didn’t even touch my body – she just asked me a couple of questions, “are you still bleeding?” “How badly are you bleeding?”.  That’s it, and I left the hospital.  

No advice, no medicine were given.  Maybe there was nothing they could do to stop the bleeding.  But, I had no idea what I should be doing: the doctor said that I’m having miscarriage, so is it over?  Or do I still have a chance?  I didn’t know, and  I went back to work on next day – still bleeding.

If it was in Japan, the doctor would have said “stay in the bed, and don’t move around.”.  Some pregnant women bleed, and it is not a good sign.  In Japan you’ll be forced to stay laying down on the bed (only get up when you go to toilet or take shower) and wait for doctor’s next advice.  Some pregnant women get out from the danger of having miscarriage after the doctor’s treatment.

I didn’t know about it that time.  I had to go get blood test, ultrasound, and go back to the hospital few times. At the hospital nurses just kept asking me “are you still bleeding?”.  Few days later (bleeding everyday and working everyday), my miscarriage was confirmed. 

So, to think about it, my first pregnancy could be saved..?  I don’t know if I should be thinking about it now as I’m carrying another baby here, but it just keeps staying in my head.  If I was in Japan, would she/he be saved?

Now, here is the ultrasound photo taken at my 11th week (the first ultrasound screening).  I like this photo because the baby is kicking the leg to the air and I can see the tiny leg.  🙂

I saw the baby in 3D at the second ultrasound screening, and at the third screening my baby was looking much bigger.   According to the baby watcher app, the baby is about the size of a sweet potato at the moment !

All I Can Think of Is…

Food….  I really really can’t wait going back to Japan next year! (><)

My friend (mother of my former student) from Hokkaido sent me some photos.

Wow, look at the size of soft serve placed on top of the Hokkaido melon…  

On her email she said that she traveled to Furano and Sapporo (cities in Hokkaido) during summer (She lives in Hakodate, Hokkaido), and told me that she enjoyed sanma (saury) sashimi and buta-don (teriyaki-style pork donburi).

As I can’t eat sushi and sashimi now (or any raw food) now, and it makes me want to eat even more!  Especially after hearing her story…  I really miss sushi and sashimi in Japan.  

I wonder if pregnant women eat raw fish in Japan.  My doctor says what you can/can’t eat during pregnancy just relates to the risk of food poisoning – if the food is fresh enough (and your immunity level is ok enough) you can basically eat anything.  I wouldn’t eat raw fish in Perth as I can’t trust the freshness.  And, I think it’s best to avoid some seafood due to the Mercury content.  But, I don’t think my mum avoided eating sushi and sashimi while she was pregnant with me…

Anyway, I’m thinking going back around Autumn next year.  It’s just because the food is so delicious in Autumn in Japan and I want to enjoy it 😀

Umm… to think about it, it’s another 1 year away! (it’s Autumn in Japan now)   Hayaku~…

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News from Ume

How I spent my Long Weekend..

I didn’t do much in this weekend, but I could totally relax.  On the second day the cousin and her son couldn’t visit our house again, so we headed to South Fremantle to walk around the beach.

It was a great exercise for both of us.  We should do that more often…

At home I made some steamed buns with pork soboro.

The dough is very chewy.  It’s called “mushi-pan” in Japanese, and it normally contains sweet fillings such as sweet beans and sweet potatoes.  I love the chewy texture on mushi-pan (I used to buy them from convenience stores a lot).  I had some pork, so I thought I could make savoury mushi-pan rather than the sweet ones.

It didn’t taste like those Chinese style cha siu buns.  First of all, the bun is chewy.  My husband seemed not like it much .. :p

I will update the recipe some other time!  If you want to try making those…

Thanks to the weather, our tomatoes are booming in the garden!

Chilled tomatoes taste so great.  It cools down the hot body in summer.  Chilled tomato (hiyashi-tomato) is a typical Izakaya menu in Japan, it’s just sliced chilled tomato served with salt, but it’s just a great hashi-yasume ( “chopstick resters”).

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Long Weekend – Lazy Day

It is a beautiful long weekend for Perth people!  The weather is perfect.  Is it summer already?  So warm and sunny.

I did lots of washing yesterday.  It’s time to put back our thick coats and jackets in the closet and pull out the summer clothes.

When I stepped outside, I realised the weed grew so fast in the last couple of days.  Our yard looks so … bushy.  I started weeding, but I couldn’t keep it up under this sun.  I almost got sunstroke.  There’re still some worms around my house so I didn’t want to go too deep into the garden.

Yesterday my husband’s cousin and her son from Hong Kong were supposed to come to our house, so I was tidying up the house whole morning.  I made cherry and walnut cake too, just in case they want to eat some snack.  But, she texted us that her son didn’t feel good and they went to hospital instead of visiting us.

I was kind of tired from the weeding and cleaning, so I laid down on the sofa until 2 pm, watching Sho-gun on tv.  It’s a long movie…  We decided to go outside a bit for shopping.

There were so many people gathering around the tv section at Myer watching the football final.  Even the shop staff.

His pitstop at Macdonald’s $2.00 burger.

That’s it.  It was my lazy day and I liked it.  I did almost nothing (except for those weeding and cleaning), and after we got home I laid down on the sofa again and started watching tv.  My husband cooked dinner for me – we had nacho night. 🙂

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Dinner Menu for Another 1 Week

I like cooking, and like thinking what to cook for dinner tonight.  I sometimes decide the dinner menu for the next few days in advance.  I may as well make a whole month of menu, print it out, and put in the fridge like my elementary school 🙂

If I write down the menu I can see the nutrition balance at glance, and can save some time thinking in front of the fridge what to cook tonight.  When I know what to cook I can start cooking straight away after coming home.

I had oden last night.  I started cooking the oden the other night and have been simmering in the slow cooker so that all the ingredients soak up the soup.  Dishes like this is a great way to clean up the left overs in the fridge.

I need to clean up the fridge within one week, as parents-in-laws are coming back to Perth soon.  While they are here, mum cooks everyday and there is no space for me to be in the kitchen.  She buys lots of grocery and cook everyday, so the fridge has to be almost empty :p

But I don’t worry.  I’ve made up a menu for the next 7 days already. 8)

Tonight, to clean up the cabbage I am making okonomiyaki!

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Mail Delivery Failure

It was two days ago that happened.  Suddenly I couldn’t send emails to my mum from my email account.  I could receive her emails saying “are you ok!?!?!?” “I have lost contact with you” “I’m going to Docomo now to get my mobile checked” etc, but the emails I sent all returned to me as “undelivered”!

I never had this problem before.  Yahoo Japan is weird.  There was no problem between my email account and other people including dad, bro and grandma, but just my mum couldn’t receive my emails.  (my grandma uses Docomo too, I think)

I sent an email from my gmail, and it was ok.  It must have had some kind or error between my Yahoo email account and her Docomo account?  We never know..

By the way I was alone last night.  My husband left home for a business meeting after picking me up from the work.  I knew he was going to come home late (he did come home late, around 1am), so I was going to enjoy my time alone.

I normally like spending time alone.  It’s the time I can totally relax and don’t need to worry about others.  I was going to relax, probably take shower then do some facial massage and wear facial mask, and look for a new hair style on the internet.  But, I thought I could do some food preparation for the dinner tomorrow, and started cooking.

First I made tuna sushi roll for his snack.  He’s been eating hosomaki (thin sushi rolls) with just cucumber or shredded carrot lately.  It’s a really unique thing because he used to hate vegetables before.  Last night, I made tuna rolls instead of cucumber or carrot so that he won’t get bored with the sushi rolls I make. 🙂

I wasn’t actually hungry last night, but when I was mixing the tuna with Japanese mayonnaise and a dash of soy sauce, the smell made me wants to eat tuna.  I decided to eat tuna salad.  I added mayonnaise to my salad – I didn’t eat mayonnaise often before, but now I’m concerned about my vitamin-D level and trying to eat fatty food a little.

Then, I made some Japanese style steamed cake in the oven.  And, cooked oden.

By the time the daikon, boiled eggs, tofu and potatoes started to look soft and all tasty, I realised it was already 9pm.  I was so tired…

I decided to stop cooking and take shower.  I sat down on the sofa in front of tv and then fell asleep…

It was my time alone.  I don’t think I could relax, but I could do some stuff that I can’t do while he is here (he doesn’t like me standing in the kitchen for too long at night) so I guess it was ok.

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My Weekend

I’ve been not to try to make any plan ahead for the weekends lately – just do whatever I feel like on the day, and I think it’s the best way to spend a relaxing weekend.

On Saturday we started the car engine around noon.  I bought a set of new quilt, pillows and sheet from Target the other day but I forgot to buy the quilt cover, so we headed to IKEA to buy a cover for the quilt.  

When we arrived at IKEA we noticed that they’re doing something near the entrance escalator.  $2.00 donation and you can get a copy of IKEA catalog with your photo!

Here is our 2010 IKEA catalog! 🙂  

After shopping, we headed to Scarborough beach.  We sat down at the stairs and watched the big waves.  At the beach the wind was little cold, but there’re people playing with water. I saw many lady bugs there.  I wanted to play with it (I can touch lady bugs) but they just ignored me and kept walking… 

My husband had a hotdog at IKEA, but we went to Jimmy Deans Diner in Scarborough to have burgers again.

A tall burger stacked with 150g beef patty, lettuce, tomato, mayo and tomato sauce.  

He ate with lots of extra sauce…  Mixture of BBQ sauce, chili sauce and American mustard.  I need to do something about his “sauce” addiction.  Too much is not good! 🙁

I like mustard, so I added heaps to my burger and ate it all up.  

… I didn’t have dinner on the day.  The big burger stayed in my tummy until Sunday morning.

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My Wafu Breakfast

This morning I had wafu (Japanese style) breakfast!  Eating them slowly, while thinking what to do today, is my relaxing morning time 🙂

I love yukari rice. Yukari is a condiment to accompany hot plain steamed rice, made from salt pickled purple shiso leaves.  You can buy a packet of this from Asian Grocery shops (at the Japanese food section).  It tastes…  different from other furikake.  It’s kind of sour and salty.  I can just eat this rice everyday!  A combination of yukari rice and wakame (seaweed) soup was my everyday lunch at a yakiniku restaurant I used to work when I was a teenager in Japan.

Nimono – simmered vegetables dish – with daikon and Chinese cabbage.  Simmering in a soysauce-based soup.  The juice from daikon and Chinese cabbage makes the delicious broth.

Natto – Japanese fermented soybeans – is a typical dish for Japanese breakfast.  Eating it with a drop of minced ginger is my favorite these days.

And, miso soup.  It’s always good to have instant miso soup packets for whenever I don’t have time to cook 🙂

This is one of my favorite meal.  … To think about it, Japanese food is quite similar to a vegetarian diet.  None of them contain animal meat, and above is a common meal combination in Japan.  If you chose konbu-dashi (seaweed stock) for the miso soup and nimono, the above meal becomes vegan.

See, these foods are totally different from what you see at Japanese restaurants here.  We (Japanese) don’t eat teriyaki, donburi, tempura and sushi everyday.  These food I’m eating today is more like “home-cooking food” where you get to see when visiting grandma/pa house.  Young people like deep-fried food, meat, and Western style food, but I still like these grand-ma/pa type of food 🙂

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Friday ♪

This morning I woke up with chicken porridge. (recipe)  Eating it with fried onion, lots of cut chili, and fresh celery leaves is my style 🙂  It would be better if I had more condiments, but I haven’t done grocery shopping lately…  Yap, I’m still waiting for my car.  

These days I haven’t been feeling like cooking.  I like cooking, but sometimes I feel lazy :p  Besides, my husband and I like totally different type of food!  I think I wrote about it before.

He loves meat, saucy food with strong seasoning (salt!).  I, on the other hand, like vegetables and seafood, very thin seasoning, and soupy food. I don’t like eating deep-fried stuff too much, and the food with too much sauce.

So, I sometimes cook two different food for dinner: one for me and one for him.  It‘s really troublesome (mendo-kusai) .

Today sister-in-low (the oldest one) is coming from Jakarta.  I’ve gotta go to the airport now!

A Spring Day

What a beautiful day!  I just went outside to check the mail, and realized the weather was my favorite one.  Sunny but not hot, and lovely spring breeze 🙂

Like this day, I used to go walking with my dog in Japan and sit down at the mountain, overlooking the hills.  I sometimes brought some snack and my drawing kit (I like drawing and painting).

It’s funny that people in Japan are saying it’s finally getting cool and they see dragonflies everywhere, and here in Perth I enjoy watching butterflies.

There is something I want to say out loud, but I don’t know…  Should I?  Some of the Umeboss viewers know about this already, but I actually haven’t told any of my friend yet!  

Delicious shots from Japan:

Miso ramen at Ramen Daigaku (one of the franchise ramen shops in Japan).  They use the miso from Hokkaido, and the locally grown pork to make char siu.  The cha siu is used in the cha-han (fried rice) too. Ummm looks delicious.

Funa zushi.  This sushi is one of the origins of sushi, and is a speciality food of Shiga!  Unlike other sushi, funa zushi is served anything but fresh.  The fish is fermented, and it smells like Roquefort cheese.  Very strong!  And, yes, it looks little gross…  the meat of funa (fresh water fish) is covered with white stuff.   But this food is considered as a gourmet food in Japan.  (although people in Shiga eat this sushi quite often, and is one of the food you see on the dining table at home).  Ha-Lu in  Mt Hawthorn used to have this funa zushi on their takeaway menu, but I don’t see it anymore so I guess they took it off the menu.

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!

Birthday Dinner at Zushi Bento Ascot

Yesterday was my sister-in-law’s birthday!  We had a birthday cake on last Saturday night at her house, and went to Zushi Bento in Ascot for dinner last night.

I must say, I like the atmosphere of this place.  It’s an individual building, and it reminds me of family restaurants in Japan.  At the door several Japan-like stone statues welcomed us, and the interior of the restaurant was very tidy.  I loved the furniture and the water glass.  The space was wide, they’ve got around 13 tables, counters, and also ozashiki : tatami-matted room with horigotatsu (low, covered table placed over a hole in the floor of a Japanese-style room).  The toilets looked good too.

The food: we ordered Maki Delight (assorted rolled sushi), niku soba, and niku donburi.  Maki Delight contains 3 kinds of sushi rolls: robster, tuna and softshell crab.  They are all uramaki (nori sheet rolled inside)  

Robter roll was with avocado and little pieces of row robster meat mixed in mayonnaise, and the roll was covered with furikake (Japanese seasoning powder).  Tuna roll was tinned tuna mixed with mayonnaise.  This roll was topped with tenkasu (crunchy bits of deep fried flour-dough).  Softshell crab roll was deep-fried sofsshell crab, covered with tobiko (frying fish roe).

The beef on the niku soba and niku don was really tough.  And, the egg sauce on donburi was not enough: the dish was dry.  The soup of soba were little oily.  

Well, if I come here next time I will probably order just sushi.  I heard the dim sum is not nice too.  From the whole experience, the food was not great, but it was ok it’s average. The price was ok too.  The atmosphere of the place was great.

IKEA and Ho Fun

We headed to IKEA last Saturday and had some light breakfast.  As IKEA’s hot breakfast is $1.95 at the moment, there was a long queue of people when we arrived.  This is “early bird” offer and only between 8 until 9 am on Saturdays.

On this year’s catalog, some products are cheaper than last year.  I bought a table and some little things for the house.  Oh, I bought a clock for the office. The one we had was around $40.00 from a stationery supplier and it broke after 1 week, but this $1.95 IKEA clock seems to be working fine.  

By the way I’m currently so into this game on my mobile and I can’t stop doing it.  I’m addicted..  Two nights ago I played this game in the bed for 5 hours!  My eyes… (>0<)  My eyesight became bad when I was little because of famicon, so I have to be careful!  I don’t want to get lasik again.

Like, the other day when I was waiting for my husband’s business meeting at their office, and I had nothing to do so started to playing game.  The meeting was going to be for no more than 30 minutes, but I ended up waiting for 2 hours.  My eyes were so tired!  And I was hungry.  We went to Vin Hong to have a quick lunch.

I had fried Ho Fun in egg gravy.  I love this dish, but I didn’t really like it at Vin Hong.  It tasted different from what I was looking for!  Where did I eat Ho Fun the first time?   I don’t remember, but it was so good and I loved it.  I had Ho Fun at Ten Ten Cafe the other night too, but it was little oily to me.  My ideal Ho Fun is not oily, and with lots of seafood and tasty, mild sauce.  Where is the best place to eat such Ho Fun dish in Perth?  I heard Penang in Northbridge was nice few years ago, but the owner seems to be changed and I don’t know now.

1 Year

Today is our wedding anniversary!  I can’t believe it’s been a year.

Although we didn’t plan what to do today much, it was going to be a great day for both of us.  …. “was”.   We were going to wake up at the same time, have breakfast together, and head to Down South for a drive and have a relaxing day.  I was also going to make cake yesterday, but I couldn’t.  We were out all day yesterday, and at night I can’t stay awake too long now.

The morning started as we planed.  We woke up together, and had breakfast and did bit of work at home.  We left home around late morning.

We head to Macadamia Nuts Farm in Rockingham first.   The weather was wonderful.

When we were driving to Mandurah, we started our argument.  It continued for few minutes, and then he stopped the car somewhere and went outside to smoke. Smoking is the only one thing that can calm him down.

After that he was little ok, but I wasn’t.  I was not angry, just didn’t want to talk.

We were already there anyway, so we went to the beach.

Just walked around a bit, and in the end we headed to home.

Umm….  we always have argument when we try to go somewhere.

“New”..

Now I’ve seen many worms in the garden and garage in my house.  It sure is getting warmer!

Yet night time is still cold here and I can’t stand without blanket when watching tv.

Oh!  by the way, I finally received a new mobile (^0^).  I was using a mobile with cracked screen for over 1 month….

What happened??  … well, I dropped it. :p   Yes, I am a dropper.  This mobile was actually gift from my husband… I feel so guilty.  I was hiding it from him for few days, but he found out one night.

The reason why he bought this phone for me was because it’s supposed to have the strongest and shock-proof body.  He knew I was a dropper.   He showed me a YouTube video of a person who was explaining how strong the phone is.  She was demonstrating it by dropping the phone from 5m high, throwing it to the wall, and even trying to break with a hammer.   The phone didn’t break and there was noscratches.

Since he bought me this phone I actually have dropped it few times, but it didn’t break.   And, just few weeks ago I dropped it again then the screen panel cracked suddenly.  I guess it hit the weakest point…  I still feel sorry for my husband, I will keep this phone to remind myself for being such careless.

My new phone is, yes, iPhone 4.  I didn’t chose it because it’s popular.  I do like Apple products and I really think it’s very useful. Plus, I already know how to use it as I’ve been using my husband’s iPhone over a year.

It took about 2 weeks to get sent to me after placing an oder online.  Now I’m waiting for the free iPhone case to arrive.  (Apple iPhone case program)  I could only place the order for the case after receiving the phone.

There are 7 cases and bumper to chose from.

Now I just wait for my car to arrive.  (YES, I’M STILL WAITING.)

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Soy Sauce Udon

This may sound gross to some people, but I cooked chicken liver too.  Liver is high in iron.

With 2 tbs soy sauce + 2 tbs mirin + 1 tsp ginger.  This tastes good.  My mum used to make this at home.  If you buy chicken liver in Japan, it comes with another offal (stuck together) and I especially like the another one.  It has texture and yummy (to me)!

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Lazy Weekend

Cheese scrambled egg, bacon, sauteed spinach and toast – a typical breakfast, but I love this 😀

It seems that there are more than 200 people died from the heat in Japan this year.  My family and friends says it’s been very hot and humid.  There’s one 20-year-old man who passed away because his air-con was broken on that night.  It’s around 36°, but the humidity is high.  Besides, all the area is stuffy (many buildings)…

I’ve been reading this blog (in Japanese) since last week – she is Korean, and lives near my house in Japan!  She’s been in Japan for 18 years now with her husband (Japanese).  I always get surprised that many Korean people are fluent in Japanese.

I love Korean food 🙂  But, same as Japanese food here, I can’t find the “real” Korean food in Perth.  I really miss the proper way of eating Korean BBQ!  And, other Korean food such as komutan soup (oxtail soup), sundubu (spicy stew), kejan (marinated raw crab in spicy soysauce-based sauce) etc…  There are many Korean restaurants in Japan, but I believe there’re many in Eastern states too.

Korean cuisine is quite similar to Japanese cuisine, I believe.  They use many kinds of vegetables – even the ones Japanese people are not familiar with, such as leaves of sesame and dodoku (carrot-looking roots).  I love Korean side dishes – namuru dishes, muchimu (mixed – like salad) dishes, chimu (stewed) dishes….  The roasted and stewed beans ( I remember Hana BBQ had this dish) is my favorite!  They goes very well with steamed rice 🙂

In Japan, I always order Korean chilled noodle at yakiniku restaurants during summer.  I love the texture of the noodle (made from potato starch).  I had a funny experience in a Korean restaurant in Perth few years ago.  I ordered this chilled Korean noodle, but the waitress kept saying “oh, you shouldn’t order this.  I don’t think you’ll like it”.  I knew what I was ordering and told her that I used to eat this in Japan all the time.  She said “Oh, ok then. You should be fine”.  She thought I had never eaten the dish before, and non-Korean people wouldn’t like this dish.  I wondered why they’d put this item on the menu…  (did I tell this story before already?)

Oden Sunday

On Sunday my friend came over for Oden and Chirashi-zushi party!  I started simmering the tofu, konnyaku, daikon radish and boiled eggs on Thursday night so that they would absorb the soup and flavor very good.  On Saturday I added some nerimono (all sorts of fish-cakes) to finish-up.  It looked so yummy!

I can’t believe I forgot to take pictures! I must had been so busy eating and chatting…   (>0<)  So here is the image photo from Google…

(Mine was not this beautiful!)

One of the friend couldn’t join the oden party as she has been suffering from unfortunate food poisoning since last week. 

I remember my first and last food poisoning was in Jakarta…  It was terrible!  I was on holiday, but couldn’t even get up from the bed.  The whole body was cold/sweating/shaking/fever/vomiting/etc.  I just wanted to lie down on the bed, I couldn’t even stand the gentle air wave from the air conditioner.

I hope she gets better!

A Sight of Spring

It was another cold night, and I wrapped myself in a blanket on the sofa and was watching tv with my husband.  It was warm during the day though…

As I stretched my body, I looked up the ceiling.  Then, I noticed something…. something black, something big…

It was a spider (>0<)!!

I remember, we had a terrible summer in this house few years ago.  Many many huge spiders showed up one night, and we had to fight them until midnight.  The thing is, both of us HATE insects – including spiders.  We were both crying but had to kill all the spiders otherwise we couldn’t go to bed. 

Image Photo

Those spiders were really huge.  They were about the size of my face!!  With the legs, of course.  And the bodies were covered with thick black hair.  Taranchula??  

Next day we called pest control to spray all over the house.  Since then, we started to spray insecticide all around the house in early spring each year.  This year we haven’t done it, but we will do it this weekend to kill all the spider eggs before they hatch.

Fortunately there was only one last night.  Our house has very high ceiling and it’s impossible to reach the spider.  We had to drop the spider to the floor first, so my husband started to throw small balls to the spider.  

After 1 hour….  the spider was still there.  My husband was starting to be tired.  We took the largest ladder from the garage, and tried to reach the spider by climbing up the ladder and using a combined two brooms. Finally, he could get the spider down….!  It dropped on the floor, and tried to run away.  Then I was in panic.  

My husband and I are not trying to be cute, but we are truly truly afraid of insects – especially the one with this size.  I was too scared to get close to the spider and kill it.  I screamed, he screamed, and finally he became a man… – grabbed a slipper and bashed the spider.  It’s over.

Afterwards my body was so warm: maybe from the thrilling and screaming.  If there is one spider, I believe there should be more around this house.  I’d better keep my eyes open… 

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Matsu Sushi

What a beautiful day today!  Sun is out, the sky is blue…  I love driving the freeway to the city and looking at the Swan River…  It may be still bit too cold, but when it gets warmer you can see many people enjoying water sports, including canoeing, jet skiing, paragliding, swimming, etc.  I saw few canoes in the river today.

I felt like something Japanese today.  I asked my husband what he wanted to eat for lunch, then he replied to me with the usual answer…  ” Up to you.”  I hate the word!  (#_#)

I said “Ok…  Udon” coz I know he doesn’t like udon. After few minutes of discussion we decided not to eat udon, but ended up going to a food court and chose whatever we wanted.

I was actually thinking about teriyaki fish.  We went to a food court and I had teriyaki fish at Matsu Sushi.

Umm…. presentation-wise, it’s not really great.  The taste, it was ok, average. 🙂  I don’t actually like them using basa fish, but well, almost all Japanese restaurants/takeaway shops in Perth use basa fish for teriyaki fish, so I can’t complain!  I did enjoy it.

My husband had a mixed Chinese dish.  Umm.. fried stuff.

Matsu sushi has quite a few shops across Perth.  In Rockingham (Rockingham shopping centre), in Mandurah, in Morley (Galleria Morley), and in Leederville.  The Leederville shop used to be Banzai Sushi and Noodle before, and now it’s Matsu Sushi Leederville.

You can dine-in at Matsu Sushi Leederville (and probably in Mandurah), and Matsu Sushi Leederville has liquor license now.  I’m sure the food there are much better than Morley and Rockingham (in the food courts)

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