What’s your thought?

If you’ve been to Japan in matsuri (festive) season (most likely in summer), you know those stall food that add more excitement and energy to the atmosphere.  Yakisoba, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, kakigori, crape, grilled corn, just to name a few.   Here in Perth, I get to see some stalls that sell Japanese food at festivals (I saw Fumi’s Okonomiyaki & Yakisoba stall at  Chinese NY festival in Northbridge last month) but not so many kinds.

City of Melville is organising a Japanese festival, which is a charity based event, in October this year.  The details are yet to be confirmed, but there will be some stalls selling food and also Japanese goods for children.  I hear taiko performance will be played at the beginning of the festival, and they will show a Japanese movie “paper plane”.

It sounds exciting as I love matsuri!  I know it’s a charity based event and I can’t expect too much, but I hope to see some stalls selling Japanese stall food there.

Here is a question:  What do you want to see at this kind of Japanese festival?  Food? Activity?  I want to hear your thoughts so I can probably pass this to people who are organising this festival in Melville.

Thanks!

An eventful day

Happy Chinese NY~~

This year, my birthday happened to be in Chinese NY week, and it’s been eventful days watching dragon & lion dances, many red dresses around, and munching on yummy food.

Today I went to Northbridge just to get my birthday chocolate treat at San Churro, and ended up staying for the Chinese NY festival on James street from noon till 8pm! (had a break at home for 4hours in between though)

There’r many stalls, including Takoyaki stall and Okonomiyaki/Yakisoba stalls as well!

I wonder Japanese festival on 7th will be a huge success too… hopefully it does!

Bringing Japan into our life in Perth

Gosh, time flies ….!!!  It’s August already?  It’s been, what, 4 months since I last wrote a post on Umeboss!

Things have been hectic in my life for the last few months – I had another baby boy, restarted my small business Bagelier  (only occasionally), some of my friends decided to move out of Perth so we had several farewell gatherings, and just keeping up everyday with a 3-year-old boy and a newborn is busy enough. :-[

I missed how a newborn baby smells, moves, smiles and wiggles.

I can’t believe my elder son is attending kindy from next year. He currently goes to a Japanese kindy (not a proper kindergarten though), daycare, Japanese book club and Japanese playgroup every week, so I’m sure he’ll be ok going to school 3 days a week, but it’s just that I can’t believe he is grown up to be a school kid soon.

Looking after 2 children is hard work (especially they are boys!) but I’m not quite sure why I started doing the baking business now! I guess it’s part of my personality (my blood) that I can’t just sit around the house – I feel I need to be doing something… I push myself.  It’s a very tiring personality I have!

So, other than baking, most of the time I’m in Japanese environment where people and I speak Japanese only.  I decided to do this way because I wanted my children to be able to speak Japanese in future.  Japanese is my first language and it feels weird if I had to speak English (second language) to my own children. So I made lots of Japanese mum friends and I spend most of weekdays with them, letting kids play together.  Thanks to that, my elder son (3 years old) speaks more Japanese than English.  So my plan is working in spite of the fact that I’m the only Japanese speaker in the house and all my family are overseas.  I know his English will be stronger once he starts to go to local school, but at least he has the base then I believe he won’t forget it.

In oppose to his Japanese, my English is getting worse these days.  Because I spend everyday with my babies I don’t get lots of time talking English now.  I don’t want to be someone who stays in non-English community while in Australia, but I guess I need to stay like this until boys go to school and then I can start spending more time with English-speaking friends and working in English-speaking environment.  Until then…

I sometimes miss myself few years ago when I was speaking only English and forgot how to speak Japanese properly. It was a funny experience – I know all Japanese in my head but words didn’t come out from my mouth.  I was 23, and spent only 2 years in Australia (21 years in Japan) and already forgot how to speak my own language! So I know my kids will lose some Japanese while living in Australia… I’ll just have to keep up talking to them in Japanese as much as I can and it’ll keep our (both me and my kids’) Japanese skill, I hope..

2014!!!

It’s been quite a while since I updated Umeboss…  I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s Day 🙂

I used to write something down and share things with blog visitors few times a week (sometimes almost everyday!) before but now I’m finding it difficult sit in front of computer and write something with a soon-to-be-3-year-old-boy being around me.

I feel like I’m saying this all the time, but time flies…. it is already 2014!! And, February!!  This year Australia Day in Perth wasn’t that hot compared to the past years, and I really regret not going to South Perth to join the Australia Day event and watch fire works.

It is Chinese New Year at the moment (Chinese NY was 31 Jan 2014, but apparently they celebrate for 15 days) – In Japan we don’t have Chinese NY but here I do celebrate as my in-laws are half Chinese and also I have Chine friends 🙂  I had a traditional Chinese NY dinner with in-laws, and my son wore red Chinese dress.

I’m actually pregnant with my second, so no trip to Japan this year…  Instead, my dad (and maybe my mum if she can overcome the fear of getting on a plane) is coming to Perth around November to see his grand sons.  My son and I went to Japan for 2 months last year and now we are already missing it.  It was summer in Japan and we enjoyed all the summer festivals, including fire works and bon fire, and of course FOOD!!!  I miss sushi~~~ sashimi~~~

It makes me feel little down when thinking about no being able to go to Japan, stay in ryokan and enjoy delicious food and onsen (hot spring) and relax for at least another 2 years, but I’m sure it’ll come faster than I think.  Babies and toddlers are cute but 2~3 years old can start enjoying same things as you do so I will wait to have a nice relaxing trip to Japan until my second one turns 2..  Ahhh…. feels such a long time <3

I think this year, until I give birth to a baby, will be fairly a relaxing one because I actually stopped baking and am focussing on time with my son at the moment.  Doing Bagelier at home was great but I don’t think I can do things as I used to do if I have 2 kids… at least for the first few months.  So I decided to take a break.  Long break.  I don’t even know when I’m gonna reopen Bagelier :p  I am really thankful for all the customers and friends who have been supporting me doing this business and hope to get back on foot someday 🙂

At the moment I’m planning my son’s 3rd birthday party.  I wasn’t even thinking of doing it until my son started asking me about birthday cake etc… (I’m surprised how he knows it’ll be his birthday soon) so I thought I’ll throw a small party – just a morning tea at the park with friends and family.  Last year his birthday cake had Anpanman (Japanese cartoon charactor) but this year he requested a dinosaur.  The cake will be as usual – sponge cake, whipped cream, lots of fruits…. like Japanese cake.  Then I’m gonna put 3 dinosaurs on top (because he’ll be 3).

I’ve already made dinosaurs to put on top of cake 🙂  I hope he will like it!!!

(for how to make these chocolate dinosaurs, see my post here)

A Japanese Designer at Perth Upmarket

A Japanese girl Mai Rikiishi is a fashion designer who designs and creates beautiful clothes for women from her home.  She studied at Tokyo and worked in USA in fashion industry before moving to Perth in 2010.

All design are hand-painted by her and then digital printed into high quality natural fabric.  She has a 2 year old girl at home so she is doing all the work when her little girl is asleep.

She is having a stall at Perth Upmarket tomorrow the 24th November selling her beautiful dresses.  Check out her website to see her creations!

Details of all the sellers can be found here.

The Thing I Love About Perth

Nature – this is one of the things I love about Perth!!

Although going to the park is one of our daily routine, we had quite a time in the park we went to this morning.  It’s just normal park, nothing special, but with what we did we felt so close to nature.  We played with trees, leaves, sticks, stones, and bugs 🙂

I was amazed how much both of us enjoyed doing these simple things – watching lady bugs moving, collecting pinecones, and making letters with sticks – without toys and bouncing balls.

There are so many parks across Perth and it’s amazing.  I really think Australia is a very nice place for families with kids.
Today’s experience recalled my childhood memory.  I used to climb up trees to catch cicadas and beetles, soaked my body in the small river to catch crayfish, and watched killifish swimming around in the water.  Now I can’t do these things around my house anymore.  Things have changed a lot, and I barely see wild creatures over there.  Lots of buildings, trucks and noises.

Today I felt that we belong to nature and are part of it.  I wish kids benefit from these amazing things out there in Australia.

Hinata Cafe 2012

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…  First, this is not a photo of Hinata Cafe market which was held in Bibra Lake. Today a new Apple store opened in Garden City so I went there to have a look in the morning. It wasn’t my plain, it was D’s.  I was actually gonna go to Hinata Cafe from 10AM, but D insisted that he wanted to get free T-shirt. :-p

There were many people queuing and the staff in blue Tshirts were cheering to all customers.

After receiving freebie, we headed to Hinata Cafe market.

It was a beautiful sunny day!  Perfect day for outdoor market like this.  It was my first time going there, and the place was cosy and filled with people.  Parking area was very limited.

There’re chairs and tables where people can eat and drink the food/beverage they buy from Hinata cafe.  Above photo – nature craft was my favourite.

There are handmade arts and craft sold inside the small building.  They’re so cute and well-made.  Very lovely.

From 10:30 and 12:30 there was “under the tree kindergarden” which some people did reading and singing to kids.

Demonstration of Japanese tea ceremony was available.

I met many friends over there.  It was a great catch-up.  My friend had this “miso soup & 2 onigiri” lunch served on a bed of a bamboo leaf.  There was a big queue to the cafe.  I wanted to eat green tea tiramisu, but I couldn’t 🙁  Hopefully I can try lots of food next year.

That Time of the Year

My friends were saying that they got invitation for their husbands’ companies’ Christmas party, and I thought “Christmas? Already?!”  To think about it, it’s already September.  3/4 of 2012 has been gone and only 1/4 remains.  Wow, how quickly can time pass around us?

Soon there will be “Christmas tree section” in department stores and shopping centres, and people will be talking about what to buy for Christmas presents (although many might already have done lay-buy).  Sigh, I wanted to move out from this house by the end of this year, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen.

Oh, today is Father’s Day.  Father’s Day in Japan was in June, so I feel like “again?”.

I baked cookies for D.  And making nachos tonight.  It’ll be enough…

Today, because it’s Father’s Day, entrance to Perth Zoo is FREE for fathers.  I have 1 year pass, so three of us can go there for free (basically).  🙂  I’m waiting for them coming back from Sunday mass.

IKEA Food for FREE!

I’m quite surprised to know that not many people are aware of IKEA’s current promotion – “I could eat an armchair” where the amount you spend at IKEA restaurant will be taken off your store purchase. (term & condition)  This offer ends this Friday, so if you are interested then rush to IKEA!!

I actually didn’t have anything particularly that I wanted to buy, but since sister-in-law is here from Jakarta we took her to IKEA for lunch yesterday.  We ate around $33 worth food, and got $33 worth IKEA items for free!

It’s not only IKEA, but many shops in Perth are starting Sunday trading from next week.  Perth is changing.  I remember when I came here in 2003….  I had a huge culture shock when I found out shops are closed on Sunday.  For me, weekends are the time people go shopping!

Hmmm…. by the way, I’ve already started shopping from Japanese online shops….  I’m gonna ask my dad to bring them to Bali then I can take them home here in Perth.  (thank you, dad)  I wasn’t gonna buy many things, but it’s so hard….  There are so many things that I want to buy from Japan!!  On my last homecoming trip to Japan, we had total of 50kg allowance for check-in luggage, but we had to leave half of what we bought there because our luggage were already over 50kg.  So, imagine how many things we bought during our stay there….  It’s crazy.

It’s kinda shame that there is no Daiso in Bali.  Well, but we are not going to Bali for shopping.  We are going there to RELAX and EAT 🙂  I can’t wait!

Hinata Gallery Cafe 2012

There will be an exciting event for people who love hand-made craft, art, music, Japanese foods and culture in Bibra Lake.  This event, called “Hinata (sunny side) Gallery Cafe”, will be held on 8th of September 2012 at Perth Waldorf School, Bibra Lake.

There will be stalls selling hand-made crafts, arts, etc as well as Japanese foods and drinks.  I’ve never been to this event before, but apparently it’s held annually.  I hear all the things at this event are very well-made and good quality.  Above of all, nothing can beat the warmness of handmade things.

There will also be an opportunity to experience Japanese calligraphy, and listen to Japanese musician playing and watch Japanese film.

Cafe will open from 10:00 to 19:00, Craft/Workshop open from 10:00 to 16:00, Music Concert will start at 16:00 for 30 minutes, and Film will start from 16:30 until 18:30.  Yes, it’s a whole-day event!

So, write down the date “8th September 2012” on your diary and experience the whole culture and entertainment of Japanese artists!

Cuddly Animal Farm

The other day I packed some snack and drinks to a bag and headed to Swan Valley. It felt like a short trip, although it’s just 30mins drive from my house. I took Roe Hwy to get there, and the road was awful – lots of trucks and bumpy road which was under construction – not a great path to take for a trip :p

The destination of the trip was Cuddly Animal Farm which is just off West Swan road, but we stopped at the chocolate factory as it’s on the way to the farm anyway.

At the chocolate factory there’re many people inside – queueing to get some free-tasting chocolate!  Everyone thinks the same… but I was surprised to see the queue being so long. They just stood there with a piece of tissue paper in their hands, waiting to grab a handful of free treat.  I did the same…

The Margaret Chocolate Factory now has a shop in Perth City as well. (info → http://www.chocolatefactory.com.au/)

After the attraction we headed to the farm. The weather wasn’t great but luckily not raining.  We paid at the entrance, and went inside a shed filled with ducklings, rabbits, guinea pigs, and little baby pigs.  You can feed them (except bottle-fed animals such as pigs) and the food (cabbage and bread) was free to take as many times as you want.  I grabbed a bucket of cabbage and bread, and went inside a cage of rabbits. But I had to get out the cage soon because Hiro was very scared of them :-(. He gets excited to see animals and seems to like them, but he is afraid of them when they get closer.

We walked around the farm. Saw a pony, donkeys, alpaca, horses, sheep, lambs, ducks, etc etc.  After awhile Hiro began to be ok with them being close to him, and started to touch donkeys and rabbits. And he loved feeding rabbits – kept giving leaves of cabbage.  It was nice to see him doing it. I felt it was very much worth to come here.  He looked like a brave boy!

The farm opens 7 days a week, except Christmas Day & Boxing Day.  They do travel-farm service as well, and I’m thinking about it for his 2nd birthday party.  There is a farm B&B next door (owned by the same owner, I think) and if you stay there you get unlimited access to the farm.

Swan Valley Cuddly Animal Farm
128 John St, Henley Brook WA
0424 209 730
www.cuddlyanimalfarm.com

McValue with Free Newspaper

Have a Breakfast McValue Meal® and you can get a free copy of The Sunday Times!

This offer starts from the 11th of April for a limited time only, and is only available until 10:30AM.  McValue Meal®  includes Hash Brown and Small Espresso Pronto as well.

I saw this ad on The Sunday Times I was reading at McDonald’s yesterday.  It was late afternoon and I felt like something cold – perhaps frozen coke or thick shake –  but I got $2 Chicken McBites and a chocolate sundae in the end.  I still got to read The Sunday Times for free coz someone had left it on the table.

Was I the only person who didn’t know that McDonald had started showing the calories of the each food item on the menu panel?  It’s just like Japan – everywhere you go you get to see the calorie of each food on the menu.  I heard that other fast food chains (KFC, Hungry Jack etc) are also going to show calories of each item on the menu board.  You know, it’s good thing that you get to know how much calories you are getting by eating the food, but at the same time you just have to compare this item is lower calorie than others and sometimes chose the item that you weren’t planning to order.  That’s what happens to me every time I dine at family restaurants and cafes in Japan.  I feel like eating cheesy chicken and vegetable pasta, but I end up ordering a healthy wa-fu mushroom pasta instead.  It’s just because I see the calories on the menu.

Anyway, get back to the free The Sunday Times thing.  You can also get a free copy from Spud Shed when you spend $5 or more at one transaction.  I’m not sure if all Spud Shed do this, but Jandakot one does! Sometimes you need to ask for it at the casher though.  Oh, and McDonald’s free newspaper offer is only available in WA too!

Hand Works

I wrote about me holding Hiro for 2 hours when I visited Play Group few months ago and strained my right wrist, and now the pain is still there and I went to see doctor again.  As I’m leaving Perth in few weeks and I want to fix my wrist as soon as possible so that I can travel with a 8-month-old baby, I decided to make a customized splint.

The nearest place that makes hand castings is Hand Works in Leeming, and I phoned them to make an appointment right after visiting doctor.  I was expecting that I would have to wait for few days to get and appointment, but I could see an occupational therapist on the afternoon.

Hand Works Occupational Therapy does services including rehabilitation, splinting, neoprene braces, and pain management of elbow, wrist and hand.  There are 5 locations in WA, which include Leeming, Rockingham, Duncraig, West Perth, and Mandurah, and a doctor’s referral is recommended.

Before I visited Hand Works, I was wearing this Thermoskin that I got from a Chemist.  This is supposed to restrict the movement of my thumb, but I didn’t feel any improvement.  I guess it’s because I kept taking it off very often when I had to change diaper etc.

The splint I got from Hand Works is this soft material one.  Therapist told me that hard plastic splint works the best, but it’s hard and not practical for a mother who cares a baby.  I was wondering how she was going to cast my hand using this.  This is how it works:

There is a thin plastic liner inside, and she poured hot water inside so that the plastic melts.  Then, she tied this splint around my right hand and held it for few minutes until the plastic harden.

It fits perfectly on my right wrist, and restrict movement of thumb.   I was told to wear it as much as possible (even when I sleep) for maximum result.

The therapist was really friendly, and told me that it’s very common for mothers having this problem.  She even had handouts for mothers, and that proves it.  Her explanation of my condition, including how it happened and the process of cure was really clear and I could understand completely.  She normally let patients wear the splint for 2 weeks then follow up with gentle exercises, but, as I need to leave Perth on 18th I will have to come back to see her next week.  She was really flexible and supportive.  She is going to teach me how to exercise my thumb and wrist while in Japan.

Now, it’s been just 2 days since I started wearing this, and I feel much better.  I try not to use my right hand (it’s impossible to not use it when you have a bub though), and wearing it as much as I can.  I hope it cures very soon!

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Library Cafe in Cottesloe WA

The other day Hiro and I drove to Cottelsoe to meet my friend.  Gosh, I hadn’t seen her for such a long time…  We used to work at a cafe in Applecross 3 years ago.  She is a barista and makes great coffee.

The place she chose for a meet-up was a newly opened cafe inside Cottesloe library, just off Stirling Hwy. There is a underground parking underneath the library, and I went up with a lift.  The door between the carpark and lift/stairs area is automatic and it was very easy access with a big stroller.

The library looked so beautiful and stylish – Apple Mac desktops are available for use, free wifi, furnished with unique chairs and desks… even beanbag covers are made of denim.

I loved the cafe too.  Lovely flooring, modern and contemporary tables and chairs/sofas, and, of course, great coffee.

I ordered decaf latte.  Beautiful crema.

I couldn’t take photos, but they also had range of home-made cakes at the counter.  They all looked so fresh and delicious.  I will definitely try them out on next visit.

My friend is so good at kids/babies.  Hiro was smiling and enjoying her cuddle for 1 hour.  We talked about many things – about families, other friends, etc.  The weather was beautiful, the area is quiet and peaceful, and it was a lovely morning 🙂

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PBC Expo and Pizza with The Lot

PBC Expo (Perth Pregnancy Babies & Children’s Expo) started yesterday, and D, Hiro and I headed to Claremont Showgrounds Exhibition Centre in the morning.  We assumed there’ll be more people on weekends.

It was around 12am when we arrived there, and the parking was full!  So many people with prams, as expected…  We wanted walk around fast, so we carried Hiro.  It was my first time going there, and I didn’t really search what’s there and how big the expo was.  I think I should have done it at least to check what exhibitors would be there.

Many exhibitors were offering free samples and discounts on their products.  At the entrance of the expo you can get a pamphlet of vouchers you can use at the stalls within the expo.  I didn’t even know these things and was wondering why people were handing those piece of paper to the exhibitors.  Soon I found out I had to tear the coupon out of the pamphlet and pass to the exhibitors in order to get the free samples.  I see I see…

I got so many free stuff and pamper bags.  I also bought some Curash bath-time moisturiser ($4.00), Heinz’s disposable bibs (5 for $1.00), and Sistema’s  set of baby feeding utensils and containers ($10.00).

We didn’t stay there for long (I think it was less than 1 hour) but many people seemed to enjoy the free stuff, talk to some experts (breastfeeding, postnatal depression, children’s health insurance etc), and the foods.  It could be fun going with mom friends.

At home, I wanted to clean up the fridge and decided to make pizza for dinner.  D likes eating salad rolls and keeps few containers of vegetables (say; tomato, red onion, lettuce, cucumber, etc) in the fridge, but once he runs out buns he doesn’t touch these containers and all the vegetables go bad 🙁  I hate wasting food, so I cut these left-over up and used as toppings for pizza.  I picked few leaves of basil from the garden and used it too.

Ummmm I think I put too much food on the pizza :p  Yes, I am a piggy…  But I like it with lots and lots of ingredients.  I added chopped bacon for D too (as he loves meaty one).  It was great – tasty, and the fridge is now clean!

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What Happened in Perth ?!

Some may know what happened in Perth, Western Australia few days ago.  There was blackout across the city, flood, and big ice balls were hailing.  BBC NEWS ”Power cables collapsed, hospitals were flooded. Some schools remained closed on Tuesday.”

Message from my husband:

“Lucky you’re not in Perth right now cos there seems to be a mild emergency.  There was a big storm that popped up out of the sudden, hours before I was sweaty outdoors then suddenly big rain + knocking sounds on the rooftop.”

” I was on computer when it happened and power went out.  When I checked the meter I found that it was raining ice block (hail storm) and you couldn’t see 10 meters on account of the violent rain and hail (mostly rain).

I freaked out because I couldn’t contact him for 2 days.  He said he couldn’t use computer, and now is at his sister’s house.  What a relief…

There seems that lightning struck something at WesternPower.  My friend also told me that the front grass of her car was hit by the ice cubes and is broken.  Many people was taking cold shower in the dark.  I assume all my food in the fridge is all gone by now…. but I’m happy to hear no one I know is hurt.

I hope everything goes better soon.

Yuko Home-Based Hair Salon

I had my hair cut and colored in Perth few weeks ago. The lady who did my hair is Japanese. I knew about her from Perth News – a Japanese website in Perth. She currently uses her house as a salon. 🙂

As I hadn’t had my hair cut for awhile, my hair was a mess! She showed me few Japanese hair catalogs, and I decided to go with light marron color hair. I asked her to make a fringe too, just for a change. My hair is around 10cm below shoulders, and it was $120.00 including cut, color, shampoo and dry. I think it’s pretty cheap.

She said that she’s been working as a hair stylist in Tokyo since she graduated her school in Japan. She also has experiences working in a hair salon in Perth, and last year went back to Japan for 3 months as holiday. As soon as her old colleagues knew she was in Japan, they called her up and asked her to work in the hair salon that she used to work before. According to this story, she must have been a good worker!

When I told her that I was getting married in few weeks, she offered me to get aqua-gel nails. She’s into nails (manicure, pedicure) too and brought a machine from Japan.

This machine produces UV -Ultraviolet light. Aqua -gel become solid under UV, so what she does is brush aqua-gel on nails and put the fingers inside of this machine. After 30 seconds the gel becomes solid (but not too hard). I decided to have this aqua-gel nails done, I knew I had to do something with my nails before the wedding anyway…

I got graduated pink color with silver stones.

Her price list:

☆CUT　Mens $20 / Ladies $30

☆Colour $100～（include cut&shampoo&pretreatment&browdry）

☆Perm $100～（include cut&shampoo&pretreatment&browdry）

☆super straight perm $200～（include cut&shampoo&pretreatment&browdry）

She uses Japanese products such as Shiseido、Milbon.

8am～3pm
YUKO san
0450 32 4916
happy_kappy [at] hotmail [dot] co [dot] jp

Milk and Honey

Fremantle Chocolate Factory

When my partner and I were riding around Fremantle the other day, we decided to drop by this factory and have a look around.  Although this place opens 7 days a week, and has been advertising on one of Japanese news magazines in Perth, it was my first time going there.  

While we were parking our vespa, I saw few Japanese people (I could tell!) going towards this factory.   Hmm seems that the advertising on the Japanese magazine is really effective, otherwise this place is hard to be found and no one would realize there is a chocolate factory in Fremantle – especially tourists. (‘x’)

As we entered the factory I saw Japanese news magazines on a rack, and a sign board on the wall written in Japanese!  Wow lots of Japanese people must come here often.

They sell chocolate with a wide variety of flavors, and the packaging has a logo of “Chocolate Factory Fremantle”, so they make great souvenirs.  There are free tasting chocolate (milk, dark and white), and I tasted white chocolate buttons.  They are pretty sweet.

What I found interesting is that they also sells some molded chocolate : shaped into some animals, gift basket etc.  I thought they are really cute, and I almost bought a treasure box shaped chocolate.  Then I realized “wait, who am I gonna give this to??  I can’t bring it to Japan as it might melt (as it is hot in Japan), and partner’s parents can’t have lots of sugar.”  It would be a good gift if you have someone who loves chocolate.

They also sell some handmade fudge delivered from Margaret River Fudge Factory as well as Morish Nuts products.

You can see inside of factory through windows.

Yum Cha

Do you like Dim Sum?  In Perth you can get them pretty cheap as compared as in Japan.

Which Dim Sum dish do you like?  My favorites are…

Fried Squid (everyone’s favorite!), Steamed Prawn Dumplings, Prawn in Rice Flour Rolls, Chicken Feet, GInger Tripe, and mango pudding.

Those dishes are what I order every time I go out for yam cha.  I know some people don’t like chicken feet, tripe etc, but I love those offal (if it’s cooked nicely!)

Yes, looks little gross… :p

By the way do you know why this dining experience (eating small servings of different foods) is called “Yam Cha”?  Yam Cha in Chinese character (飲茶) means “drinking tea”, which means that you need to drink lots of tea while having those food as the foods are usually oily and high in fat.  Drinking Chinese tea helps digesting those oily food.  That’s why you need to order Chinese tea at Yam Cha restaurants!