Fresh peas!

Eric bought a bag of fresh peas last week. Have you seen a fresh pea before? I have not till last week. And I have not tried eating a fresh pea prior too! All my peas are the frozen ones from the supermarket. 

As Eric was not sure what to do with them, he only bought about a kg of it, selling at a super discount of $2/kg! These peas are usually $7-9/kg in the markets.

So peel them open like this, and you can see the beautiful rows of peas, lying in there next to one another.

Some are really full to the brim, while some are still young. Like the ones below, they are the baby peas.

The peas that are big and fat to the brim have a slight bitter taste when eaten fresh. While the baby peas are sweet. However, the bitterness in the peas will be gone after cooking, leaving just the nice sweet taste.

Does this look like those expensive Japanese melons? Haha

Here's all the peas all peeled and ready for cooking! There's so much pods 'wasted'. We had them composted. For every pea pods, will have about 1/4 pods weight, and 3/4 pea weight.

I just had them boiled in salty water, and then seasoned them with some salt and pepper.  It taste really sweet, and I like it how it's slightly crunchy. =)

Kcan

Zeus Street Greek restaurant.

We are invited to Eric's uni friends gathering on Thursday evening. It was a random last minute decision by his friends. Since it was sort of my day off from work, and Eric's last day of uni for the week, we said yes!

There's this Greek restaurant along the road to one of my patient's house. It looks like a shop front built connecting to the house at the back. And according to Eric's sis whom drive pass this road everyday to and from work, it is always busy. 

Zeus street Greek is the name of the restaurant. http://zeusstreetgreek.com.au

We tried their signature souvlaki-pitas on the menu.

We ordered their signature lamb wrap and pork wrap. I preferred the taste of the slow cook pork wrap, where the meat goes well with the salads than the lamb. 

Eric hasn't met his uni friends for the last three years. Thus it was a nice get together. And I like how Eric can talk to them about things which is always a news for me as they knew him longer than I did.

We chat and munch over the sides which came after the mains. 

I like the egg roe dip, which taste like salmon dip. The most flavorsome out of the three dips. 

The houlomi cheese was cold when I gotten to try it. Taste like over cooked hard cheese/tofu, but it has a nice fragrance. I think it will taste nicer when hot. The calamari was yum! Love the thin coating and not overlooked of the calamari. Well seasoned too!

The pita bread was the same which was used for the wraps. Crispy and goes well with the egg roe dip. 

Overall, I enjoy the food here. It's quite affortable and nice ambience for catch up.

Would recommend coming again.

Kcan

Nasi Ulam

This is a belated post.

About a week before cny, I decided to try making a Peranakan dish, Nasi Ulam. I've not tried before, but it have heard that it is a famous Peranakan dish with lots of fresh herbs. Fresh veges and herbs are in abundance during the summer time, so why not give it a try?

I didn't buy many herbs as I only thought of this dish 'last min'. (hohoho) So I dug up all the different herbs from the garden and 'salad' veges in my fridge.

I 'followed' the recipe from this website: http://www.sunshinekelly.com/2013/06/nasi-ulam-nyonya-nyonya-herbs-rice-for.html

Of course I change here n there due to the herbs availability.

So I got here: Baby Cos lettuce, Coriander, Lemon Grass (garden), Basil (garden) and Dill.

I pounded some dried prawns and then stir-fry them in oil to fragrance.
I mix all the chopped up herbs and fried dried prawns into a big bowl of cooked rice (must cool down slightly first). I also added bean sprouts at the end to give the nice crunch. Seasoned with Salt, black pepper.

And Tada! My own Nasi Ulam. I also topped it off with some fried anchovies. This healthy and fresh salad rice is sure to entice the taste buds, especially on a hot summer day.
My MIL and family loves the freshness of the herbs all mixed in there. Looking forward to making it again before the cold weather comes.

Njoy!

kcan

Cny dinners

I love food. Simple home cooked food usually makes me happy, while restaurant meals usually makes me less appreciative of food. Maybe because I know I can eat yummier food at a lesser cost? Haha.

These are two meals I had over the cny period at home. 

On one of the Monday, I accompanied Eric to uni for his one hr lecture. Then after class, we went to the sydney fish market and got ourselves a whole salmon. It's a lot cheaper to get salmon whole at $15.90/kg than just fillet in supermarkets at $25.90/kg. We had it fillet on one side and sashimi on the other side. 

Eric's family loves eating sashimi salmon. As his dad was here, it's the perfect time for him to enjoy. So we had the sashimi side first, eating it over dinner. 

The next day, for lunch I used the left over sashimi, left over rice added some vinegar solution (like sushi rice), topped with seaweed flakes. Yummm! Tasted just like the salmon chirashi sold in shops!

Seasoned with wasabi and soy sauce. Yumm!

And then on another night, we went out for cny dinner with his family friends at this seafood restaurant. The food portion were huge. So there's boxes of left overs. Especially the dish with crab and vermicelli. There were half a dish left over! (Eric's family are not lovers of crab meat as it needs patience and skills to open the shell. Plus for the dish that day, the vermicelli was under flavored and cooked)

The next day, I was home alone after work, preparing my next day's lesson, while the rest of the family had dinner at another's cny dinner. So for my dinner, I had the leftovers from the restaurant. Poor crab, no one touched the dish at all, while the veges and prawns were all eaten up during lunch time by my in-laws. 

For my veges, I added my home grown organic sweet potato leaves!

Add water to simmer and salt for taste. 

Tada!

This is the biggest crab craw I've ever eaten. It's so huge!!

Worth taking a picture. 

Nicely peeled, eaten like a lolly pop. 

Burp! 

I think over the cny period, with all the seafood and many dinners one after the other, our cholesterol level had gone up pretty high. Time to exercise them off!

Kcan

Milkshake!

Milkshake has been in the house for almost 4.5 months now. He has grown sooooo much bigger. He's still a scary cat. Easily startled and loves hiding in small tight corners. 

He has his cheeky moments. Like walking into areas he's not suppose to, and testing our patience in doing tricks. 

He loves food. But since we left him at Grace's boss house over the cny trip holiday, he developed an expensive taste for food. (They spoil him with food) and the other day, after accidentally taste some roast duck meat (MIL shredding duck meat for noodles stir fry, and accidentally drop three pieces on the floor), he refused to eat his usual cat food! >_<

Milkshake being comforted on top of Eric's tummy. 

If milkshake is a dog, he'll look like this!

His usual hiding spot. 

Milkshake looking at his Ferraro ball. 

That's his favourite toy. Basically is just a long string with many layers of Ferraro Roche wrapper wrapped into a ball at the end. He loves chasing it and chewing/peeling it layer by layer. 

Look how big he has grown!

Kcan

Cny trip part 3

This is the caravan park where we stayed overnight, in the town of Nowra. 

It comes with basic kitchen cooking facilities, enough for us to do our dinner and breakfast cooking. Cooking equipments, plates and cups are all provided. 

It has two rooms and a shared toilet. 

The queen bedroom. Comes with linen. 

The three single beds on the other room. Only one bed comes with linen in the singles room. We brought our sleeping beds to use. 

The communial BBQ and swimming area outside the accommodation. 

The next day after checking out from the caravan park, we head towards the coast, 1 hour away. Searching for oysters!

And we found it!

We were lucky as this oysters shed only just reopened for three weeks, since closing last March!

This is the fourth generation family business. 

Their oysters had won prices at the Easter show!

Their work place. We bought four dozen of unopened oysters, one dozen of opened oysters to eat on the spot, and 1 jar of brined oysters. 

All those in bags are those peopled had pre booked!

This is the best oysters farm I've been to. The quality of the oysters are fat and juicy, with creamy sweet taste. Beats any oysters at fish markets, or even our previous favourite oysters farm in Batesman bay. 

Look at the fat plump meat!

I had a fun time opening the rest of the oysters at home, for family and friends. Some good skills which hopefully can land me a part-time job at the oysters farm? =p

After this, we tried heading to two more farms for vege/fruits. But sadly, the farms had closed down! So we drove home with just oysters and apples as our harvest for the trip. 

Kcan

Cny trip part 2

Before the day ended, we went to visit a community farm. Hoping to buy some local grown produce. 

At this community farm, each person is given a plot of land, and they are free to grow what ever veges they like. 

Most people grow veges here as a hobby. When they have a good harvest, more than they could eat, they will sell them in the market or exchange with other growers. 

Here's a pony on the farm!

There are not many ppl selling their produce on the day of our visit. Our only purchase was these organic garlic. $15/500g. 

Next stop, we stop by the famous Kiama blowhole. 

But sadly, the tide was low, and we couldn't see the powerful action of Mother Nature. 

That's the big hole which people gather around to watch. 

For dinner, we purchase some fresh seafood around kiama, and have a seafood feast back in the caravan park. 

To go with it, I made some spaghetti with the organic garlic we bought earlier in the day, and salad to go with the meals.

Haha, high cholesterol meal.

Bye!

Kcan

Chinese New Year getaway

Last Friday, the family had a getaway down the south coast of NSW for a two day one night trip. Eric's dad had arrived from hk for the cny. And it's a family tradition to go away together for a trip during his time here. We did Melbourne trip last year? So this year we are thinking of going down to south coast as I can't take too many holidays from clinic.  

Eric planned a seafood and food harvest trip. Aimed to get fresh oysters from the farm and fesh seafood from the fishing villages. And of course visit some farms to get season fruits and veges. 

We set off at 9.30 am, towards Wollongong. Along the way, we had to go through a national park, with roads so windy, that I got severe car sick. The many snacks that we bought didn't helped much but make it worse. Haha. 

We crossed valleys and mountains.

And finally arrived along the coast!

 

And we drove along the famous sea cliff bridge. It was constructed after the old road was destroyed by landslide. 

Some remains of the old road was visible on the bridge. 

After that, we stop by the first farm to buy some fresh produce. 

Apples! And they do have other things like farm produced wine, honey, ciders, jams....

And we also tried picking raspberries!

Choosing the most dark colored ones.

And pull them out and there it is!

We bought their award winning wine and ciders too, made from the apples and honey collected on their farm. It won the bronze medal! The wine is made from pure honey and yeast, and is a very nice sweet desert wine. 

After loading the car with lots of apples and other produce, we head off to this look out point, which oversees the whole of Wollongong. 

We ended up having lunch at the cafe next to the look out. Good choice!

Look at the big servings of yummy food! We select 4 dishes to share among 5 of us.

Grace chose: Their signature burger with ham off the bone.

Love the real ham which they pan fried like a bacon!

Dad chose the fish meal with mango salsa and salads.

I chose sandwich with ham off the bone. Yumm!

Eric chose the beef chunk pie which comes with super crunchy fries!

Burp!

The inside of the cafe.

The nice window view from our seat.

Thank you for a wonderful meal The Cliff Hanger cafe!

I'll blog about the rest of the journey in the next post. Stay tune!

Kcan