Esmo & Rach

True Blue Australian Dinner....

My mom came to visit in March 2009, and my cousin Shaun said no visitors should leave Australia without having a true blue Australian dinner.

Hence, after spending a day at my Aunt's place on 13 March 2009, we set off for Tukka Restaurant at West End.

What's so special about a true blue Australian dinner you ask? Isn't it the same as any other western food?

Well, how the food was cooked and presented is no different to other western food. However, it's the ingredients that matter...

What special ingredients made it so special? So special that the two animals appearing on the Australian coat of arms ended up on our dinner plate.


Yup... the kangaroo and the emu and some of their friends as well...

Before everything began, we were each given complimentary appetizers...



First up, entrees - the Native Platter...



It is one of Tukka Restaurant's signature dish and the platter contains a selection of game meats, native berries, nuts, fruits and spices, home-made damper and native dips. The smoked game meats (emu & kangaroo) taste a little like bacon only less salty and more gamey... the berries were another matter... they were nothing like the usual ones that we taste... some of them actually tastes like spices!!!

We also had another entree (forgot the name) but it was made out of crab meat, prawn into a mousse / patte like texture....



Then came our mains....


Skippy the roo....


Skippy's friend - the emu....



The malicious looking 'buaya' / crocodile....

And their more normal friends....


Chicken little the chook....


The barramundi....



Last but not least, Porky the pig....

Much to Esmond's disappointment, the Possum was off the hook that night...

I must say it is quite an experience and not many people can lay claim that they've gobbled down the country's animals in one sitting... The roo and the emu are like red meat, like beef... The croc taste a lot like chicken, kinda perplexing to see that the emu's meat is actually red and the croc is white meat!

Though the portions weren't the size of usual Western dishes, they were sufficient to put us off dessert....


Thanks Shaun, for the wonderful gastronomical experience......

Surprise surprise boys...

Esmond turned 31 on 20th Feb, while Haw turned 32 three days later...

So I took the opportunity to organise a little suprise get together dinner at The Tibetan Kitchen at West End...

There were emails flying everywhere, organising the details, even down to who goes where and when...

The plan was to let Esmond believe that we were only going to celebrate his birthday with Kin Onn and Gladys. Everything went well until he asked if we need to make reservations. He got suspicious when I said I had already made the booking.

But the cat got given away when we were looking for a parking space near the restaurant. He saw Oi Hung coming out of their car, then Rey's car, then Danny's car....

The one thing that he didn't expect was the number of people that turned up.

There were Peter, Oi Hung, Rey, Jennifer, Kin Onn, Gladys, Haw, Yan, Danny, Sheau Lei, David, Michael Chan, Sabrina and Megan.



We had the buffet...

And when we've had our fill, it was time for the cake.

Haw was led to believe that this was only for Esmond. There were 2 cakes. So when they were brought out, one was put in front of Esmond and the other for Haw....

Haw was also presently surprised, but he smelled a rat when on his way to the restaurant, he asked Yan why she had bought a cake... Apparently she couldn't manage to keep a straight face so he smelled a rat....



Thanks for coming to Esmond's and Haw's surprise birthday dinner guys and girls (and on short notice too!)....

Hope you had enjoyed yourselves birthday boys...

CNY 2009 - Year of the Ox (Moo!!!)

Saturday, 24 Jan 2009 - 2 days before the first day of the Lunar New Year, those of us that did not return to our birth countries to celebrate the festivities with our family, gathered to celebrate it with friends in our adopted country.

12 of us came together at our place to have a steamboat reunion dinner to usher in the new Moo Moo year.



We also took the opportunity to have a surprise belated birthday mini celebration for Rey...
















And after the food, we worked it off with our current favourite activity - Wii...














The action continued till past midnight (as usual....) but it was fun....

May the Year of the Ox bring back bull markets, prosperity for everyone, health and smooth journey in everything we do.....

The Perils of Wii...


Saturday, 17 Jan 2009 - After we have had enough of Wellington Point, we proceeded back to Brisbane and rejoined at Haw's place for reunion barbeque with Roger and a little Wii action.

After the food, we gathered at the lounge and we took to challenge each other in turns for a piece of the action on ...

Wii!!!!













First up to go, the guys ....















Then the girls...













The only person that didn't get a piece of the action is.....














Little Megan.... look how bored she is.... but she was good... she sat there and watched us play, occassionally playing with the No-ho-hons...




Things got so heated and the competition was so fierce that people started to get hurt! David whacked Haw on his right arm and within 10 minutes, Haw took his revenge. Not on David, but on Peter's bum! (for all these in real life action, go to my facebook and view the videos!!!)


















Roger: REF!!! That was clearly out!!! I wanna challenge!!!

World's Hottest Burger - Wellington Pt, QLD

Saturday, 17 Jan 2009 - More than 10 of us made our way to Welling Point on this day so 3 courageous man who would like to challenge their pallates to the World's Hottest Burger just because they want to ...














get their names on the wall.... (it was so serious that they had to sign a disclaimer to discharge the diner's responsibility should anything untoward happen to them in their quest....)

And the 3 courageous men are....



Rey, Esmond and Haw....


and here are their cheerleaders....

And before they can sink their teeth into their challenge, they decided to cut the burger into quarters so it would be more manageable (the burgers were bigger than a tea saucer!)














With encouragement from all around them, they begun their quest...















After the first 3 or 4 mouth full, Haw decided to pull the plug. It was too hot for him... Esmond and Rey badgered on... with running noses, red faces and sweat...













Twenty minutes on, and Esmond was on his way to "licking off his plate"....
















When he's done, he had to wait for another 5 minutes without water or puking in order to qualify.

Esmond said that the hotness did not bother him at all. What bothered him was the sourness from tha jalapenos and the dry beef patty and the general bland tasteless (other than hot and sour) burger.... In fact, he found it quite disgusting (and to think that he paid $14.95 to make himself suffer...)

And after 5 minutes, Esmond was officially a "winner". He can have his name on the wall...



























Ten minutes later, Rey had also accomplished his challenge.... (the challenge to Rey is not the hotness but the size of the burger. It was too much for him! So much so that he had to unload some after we've left the diner....)

And so, for their bravery, steel palate and engorged tummy, they have their names (complete with country code!) down onto the register...



The victors!



Since we were so full, we decided to walk it off at the beach...

But instead of walking on the beach, we were up in the trees... well, 5 of us anyway (Michael Chan, Roger, Kin Onn, Esmond and me....)




And two of us decided to come down in another way - a la koala or roast pig way....

Look who's back....



Mid Jan 2009, our dear friend Roger dropped by in BrisVegas for a week to catch up with friends....


Most of all to catch up with his badminton kakis.....


Look at the two posers below...

















Act like pro sia.... ha ha...


As with all reunions, there were loads of makans with different groups of people at different venues... One of them being the Old Oshin (forgot what the new name is....) at Sunnybank Plaza....
















The boys even took the chance to pose with Rey's cool bike!



It was good to have you back in Brissie Roger... Too bad it was only for such a short period of time... Next time, make it permanent!!!

Project House No. 2!!!

Last year, with Heng Onn and Christina's help, we did some painting in the house to get rid of the atrocious maroon, pink, orange, blue walls....

This year, with Kin Onn and Glady's help, we changed the flooring in the lounge and the 3 bedrooms.... We had engaged people to help rip up the carpet and install laminated flooring....



But before we could do that, we need to empty out the rooms. So, when we came back from our picnic at 17 Mile Rock, we came home to pack and put all moveable things from the lounge and the bedroom into the dining hall and kitchen...



Early the next morning (29/12/2009), the installers arrived and started their work...

Before long, the carpet were ripped off and the cement floor underneath cleaned to ensure that it's leveled.



Then up goes the underlay....



Then came the separate pieces of laminated flooring and the skirting around the edges....

In one day's work, they've changed our carpet floor to laminated floor....