Hanoi Trip

We're going to Hanoi!

Man I'm more excited about your Vietnam adventure than the wedding dinner now... looking forward to a junk boat ride out on Halong Bay


We can't wait to trek the rice terraces of Sa Pa, meet the minority groups in villages, watch the famous Vietnamese water puppet show and EAT fantastic authentic Vietnamese food.

Oh yes and we've also decided to spoil ourselves since the estimated tour & ticket price is well below our estimated budget. We were surprised how affordable it is!

We've decided to spend our last night at the Sofitel Metropole hotel in Hanoi. Its a old grand hotel that has Asian influences and blends it with sophisticated and subdued French style. Love the furnishings!

Check it out here http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-1555-sofitel-metropole-hanoi/index.shtml

Back to cooking

Unfortunately for us the building we live in does NOT allow us to keep any pets at all. Quite disappointing after I had inquired about Nellie and got quite pysched up to get her.

Anyways.. the attention has gone back to cooking, tonight this is on the menu, another one of Jamie Oliver's brilliant recipes

: Tender & crisp chicken legs with sweet tomatoes.

ingredients

• 4 chicken legs, preferably free-range or organic, jointed
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• a big bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
• 2 big handfuls of red and yellow cherry tomatoes, halved, and ripe plum tomatoes, quartered
• 1 whole bulb of garlic, broken up into cloves
• 1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped
• olive oil

optional:
• 1 x 410g tin of cannellini beans, drained
• 2 handfuls of new potatoes

Very easy to put together, just requires time for cooking.
Tonight will be my 2nd time making it and I've realised for us that sauce is never enough so I've decided to put more cherry tomatoes in as they literally melt in the oven and becomes this gorgeous sauce/brothy thing.

The cannellini beans was something I used for the 1st time when I first tried the recipe.. Hubby was still scrounging around for more, delicious when the garlic cloves are nice and roasted and mixes into the creamy bean mash.... oooo yah..

Nellie

Sad to discover fat little agouti rabbit below was taken already, Dave's found another cutie we could adopt.

Her name is Nellie and this is her description below.

"Nellie is a baby mini lop, who had somehow found her way into the pound. She is the sweetest little girl, and loves to snuggle up to people. Nellie is still very young, and will need training and caring owners to bring her up. Nellie does not appear to like other rabbits, so if you have a bunny existing in the family an introduction prior to adoption is best. She doesn't mind the company of guinea pigs though"

This one is great... looks like she's praying!
Or she could just be chewing something. She's in Hornsby so not too far, Dave and I shall make our trip this Saturday.

Benny the rabbit

OOOOO giant rabbit... Benny the giant rabbit I want one of these now.. just that it costs 60pounds a day on food and there's definitely no space for him in our little apartment. He's approx 2.8ft tall .. that's like more than half of me.

Jool's beef stew

Tried making Jamie Oliver's beef stew on the weekend, this apparently is his wife's favourite stew, I used gravy beef instead cos I love the taste of tendon and cartilage that has been cooked to soft jelly..

Used parsnips according to the recipe, an ingredient that I've never used before as well as Jerusalem artichokes (lovely roasted) and it just added this edge and flavour that is amazing.

1/2 a bottle of redwine, a colleague recommended us trying out clean skin wines, which in essence is some unknown unlabelled wine which I got for $6 a bottle for an unknown 2007 shiraz, it surprisingly drank really well too, wouldn't have thought it was a $6 bottle at all!

Topped it off with his recommendation of minced garlic, lemon and rosemary and it just makes it even better...perfect for a winter evening and masterchef on telly. No wonder hubby thinks he's getting fatter!

Recipe:

• olive oil
• a knob of butter
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• a handful of fresh sage leaves
• 800g/1¾lb stewing steak or beef skirt, cut into 5cm/2 inch pieces
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• flour, to dust
• 2 parsnips, peeled and quartered
• 4 carrots, peeled and halved
• ½ a butternut squash, halved, deseeded and roughly diced
• optional: a handful of Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and halved
• 500g/1lb 2oz small potatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• ½ a bottle of red wine
• 285ml/½ pint beef or vegetable stock
• zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
• a handful of rosemary, leaves picked
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

Fatty Wabbit

We're going to get ourselves a new member of the family...

Cute little fat agouti rabbit bunny here is situated in the RSPCA in ACT

Long 4 hour drive to go get him.. hope no one picks him first... OOO I love that no neck fat under the chin!

Singapore in August

Man I'm so lazy to blog...

Things I've been doing instead.

1. Working later cos of new cholesterol study
2. Watching old seasons of desperate housewives in the afternoon when I do get off work early
3. Surfing food web-sites and trying to find easy but impressive recipes
4. Do something about my Singapore wedding.. once again I'm lazy


BUT! I've redeemed myself, I'm flying back in August for 10 days to "work hard" on the Singapore wedding. This will include the "arduous task" of

1. Menu tasting a 10 course meal prepared by Hai Tian lou of pan pacific hotel
2. Shopping for a cheongsam/tea dress and evening gown
3. Shopping for the shoes to match
4. Choosing a theme for the wedding in October
5. Helping MOB to find her dress too!
6. Finding entertainment.
7. Entertaining my self assumed god-brothers at Figaro st!

Can't wait!

Ile De Pines

Got some lovely scenic shots of Ile De Pines.. 

Cocktails and native lady check us in 

Buggy to our bungalow

Our lovely bungalow

Complementary champagne

The Kanumear beach with its white powder like sand.. and clear waters... 

There was fish everywhere, no fear of human beings, swimming around our legs and toes. 

When we went snorkelling it was like swimming in an aquarium!

Ok i'm getting lazy

Buttermilk pancakes

Masterchef is good for my tummy... the husband gets inspired

Friday night's feature is Masterclass where the chef judges teaches the rookies some essential dishes. Last Friday was Ricotta and buttermilk hotcakes with carmelised apples..

OO yah! So Mr Rhodes wakes Mrs Rhodes up to go the Italian deli nearby where they buy buttermilk and fresh ! Ricotta.. its so good just cut out of a big ricotta cake instead of in the usual supermarket tub.

Anywayz... I got my reward, Mr Rhodes is enjoying a Saturday morning brekky cook off, I'm not  allowed to help, so I read my White tiger book.

More honeymoon shots

Sunday: Dave and I went to the local market: Le Marche for breakfast and got us a hot chocolate and lovely croissant.

We came back for more Monday for the Croque Madame.

Lively Sunday market pictures

Later we caught a bus to the Tjibaou cultural centre. 

As it was Sunday the cafe was not open!! sobz so we had pineapple and local bananas we bought from the market at lunch. Dave and pineapple, it was already skinned and de-eyed for us..

Funny statue with the giant penis: can't believe there was a folklore about this dude. 

The design of the building is to resemble a half construct Kanak hut, meant to represent the embrace of the another culture, the French who colonised New Caledonia. 

The centre named after Jean Tjibaou who was the Kanak man who tried to reconcile both sides but was unfortunately murdered by his own country-men who misunderstood his plans. Statue to commerate him.

Beautiful area with gardens that had many native plants and its purposes illustrated. Local Kanak huts.

Local Kanak hut, cheif's house.

Next day foodie experience Zanzibar, fusion food: melanesian and french fusion. 

Lovely entres and desserts but the mains were pretty mediocre, or rather Dave didn't quite like his chewy mahi mahi and I didn't fancy seafood marinara like currey melanesian style.

Marinated fish tartar on some sort of pastry.

Duck springroll

Dessert: Apple crepe. 

Chocolate cake bits with mangosteen tasting creme.

More romantic walks that evening after gluttony.

Saturday

Love my Saturday mornings... Dave seems to have gotten into a habit of making Saturday breakfast/brunch for me as I toddle around the house, laundry, vacuuming, filing etc.. not allowed to help him.

Today's menu, potato spring onion cakes with sunny side up eggs, bacon and garlicky tomatoes.. 

Can't wait... Mmmmm I'm so spoilt !

Eggy Bread

Since we're addicted to Masterchef Australia, or rather I am! Every day thinking about I will cook if I get a chance to audition for it but the husband has caught on and I'm just typing this while waiting for my breakfast..

Dave's gotten into this routine of making breakfast for me every Saturday, today he's inspired by the masterchef's master class of making eggy bread aka French toast... so its French toast made from Hunter Valley eggs, with fresh bread and pork sausages which we bought from the Italian grocer this morning.. Its good to have someone make you breakfast.. bliss.. =)

Honeymoon!

View from the plane as we descended into New Caledonia

We were very blessed to get the 2 for 1 sale to New Caledonia for our honeymoon destination. Originally somewhere over our budget, we made it with more spending money which we found out we do need with the price of things here. 1 Aud = 64 Pacific Francs which translate to a bus ride is $3.20, a hamburger $7.00 and a meal close to $40/person for a pizza/pasta meal. 

Our first 2 days:

Friday: Dave and I arrive in Noumea the capital of New caledonia. This country is owned by the Kanak (local) islander people but was used as a French penitentiary  during the French colonisation. Bits and pieces of the land look like Thailand/Malaysia 

all the signs here are in French. We check into the hotel La Promenade at 5:30pm. The room is humungous for just 2 of us, with a large combined dining and lounge room, and kitchenette

and a big bed room. 

We get the top floor with a large balcony where Dave and I have had coffee and desserts. We had to make a booking for an upgraded room for the 2 for 1 special.

We headed out using our map collected from the airport and our lonely planet guide which recommends this place Casa Italia listed as a must try. Dave sitting by the window.

It was fully booked but we were lucky to get a seat. The menus were in French/Italian or Japanese, waitress thought I was jap! snob owner refused to speak any english even though she knew what we were talking about. Good thing the waitress was very nice and with my limited French i.e. I know food names, fromage = cheese, canard = duck etc.. We ordered yummy duck salad with roasted potatoes, bacon bits and tomato.

Ham/artichoke/olive pizza 

And the best lasagne (salmon & prawn) I've ever had.

Not to mention for dessert the best tiramisu.. I'm inspired to try to make it now

 Even the warm bread on the side was great!!!! droool... of course we couldn't finish it.

Funny looking pacific francs which are giant sized notes.

Belly full and happy to hit one of the must dos on our first night we headed home for an early night.

Saturday: 

We woke up bright and early to be greeted by the fantastic view from our hotel balcony. Our hotel 

There was this really cool french restaurant called Le Roof which is in an overwater bungalow..

woohooo.. thinking of going there for dinner one night.

Set off to attempt to take the bus to the city centre, prices are 200 FCP /person fixed price no matter where you're going. Red and white public buses, we noticed only the tourists & the local Kanak people take it, the poshy French drive their Peugeots & Renaults.

We were so hungry so after we ordered a chicken panini and some coffees.. Coffee was disappointing but the bread.. wow! I guess that's what happens when the french are involved.

Full stomached we walked around doing the city walk as recommended in our lonely planet guide.. I kept going off track once I spotted food places. My nose led me to the famous french bakery Boulangerie Marie 

 the best Baguettes, croissants, eclairs.. 

My good husband getting me some goodies ..

We followed the recommendations from lonely planet and tried food from the local shops (something like Singapore's kopitiam but no where to sit) poulet au curry ( chicken curry melanesian style) nems ( Vietnamese spring rolls) but missed out on garlic prawns (crevettes). 

Its so funny, don't speak a word of french but in these 3 days just to order food I've picked up what is necessary.. Oui means Yes! Duh means two. marche = market, Poisson = fish etc.. plat du jour - meal of the day

Observation: everyone says bonjour to you and are very friendly and helpful(when Dave and I are lost) everyone eats giant baguettes with filling for lunch,life here is very very relaxed people sit in the park in Place de cocotiers for lunch, the french here are super fit, so many hot bods running on the beach, everyone thinks I'm Japanese and we always get bread with our meal, its very strange to see poshy french bakeries and chocolatiers in the midst of some run down old shop houses.

Super marche!!!! Casino Johnston supermarche where you can pay in US,AUD, Euro instead of pacific francs, the tags even show the prices in aussie...I went crazy, Dave had to control me when it comes to food. Wah lau eh.. I bought like the local prawns to try and we paid almost $10 for 10 prawns... so expensive! apparently New caledonian green prawns are smaller than Aussie prawns but taste a lot sweeter.

As expected they have thousands of cheeses in the market

and lots of varieties of salad, terrine and foe graie are sold like it is an everyday commodity. What was gross was that they sold BRAIN, tongue, kidney, liver, rabbit and quail (not that gross) in the supermarket...

Took a siesta midday when we got home and went for a nice long walk by the beach in front of the hotel, it stretches all the way around, took us about 2hours to walk back and forth from our area Anse Vata to Baie de citrons (lemon bay

People playing the local bowls game & so many fit French men and women running and cycling along the bay!

Went home to eat our purchases from the supermarkets and leftover lunch/pizza.. Yum!

Good first 2 days!