Bio presentation today. Didn't turn out as bad as I thought. Little satisfaction to see the other 2 squirm under their un-preparedness, deer in the headlights style. Vindication ftw.

HOI lecture today was done by another person today, a Dr Jonathan Barlow. Eccentric fella, but great at reining in the lecture group, probably the smoothest and quietest (relatively) lecture I've ever had since the start of school. And my notes this time were one of the most comprehensive on the topic of the day: Stoic Philosophy. That's some deep and awesome stuff, and thanks to Alexander the Great who united the Ancient Western world, Europe (Greece), Africa (Egypt) and Asia (Persia), and allowed such a wonderful school of thought flourish. A great guy, even though he was a flaming homosexual.

Dinner: Leftovers of yesterday's thai style chicken, with a sunny side up on top to give it more "zhi char" points

Relaxing day today, did my bio, math homework and my practical writeups.

Took a trip down to Queen Vic market in the afternoon for my weekly protein supply.

Lunch: Chicken vindaloo(sp?) and salad from the curry shop at the foodcourt. Wasn't stellar, but atleast it was nice. The curry was pleasant and not too spicy/bland.

Got myself two beef dim sims, well known in Ozland. They're actually just giant fried siew mais, but they were pretty good. (The first one was, the second one had spent a little too much time at the bottom of the deep fryer)

Dinner: Thai-style chicken and indomee! Did the chicken from scratch, batter fry and combining with peppers and onions, zhi char style. I think I need a better batter recipe, as the batter didn't really bind properly to the chicken thigh chunks. (If anyone's interested, I used one egg to like 6-7 teaspoons of cornflour)

P.S. Cleaning chicken meat of fats is really exhausting.

Breakfast: Breakfast burrito! Success this time! Scrambled eggs, salami and cheese. Seems like too much bread:filling ratio tho.

Spent the whole day at a karaoke bar competition, totally bombed.

Dinner: Remnants of yesterday's PAM

Fuud brog updates~

Breakfast: Breakfast wraps! Sausage and cheese wrapped in flatbread

Went to Dining hall for lunch with friends. So "hua suan" la, $5.80 for a hot savoury pie, browned spuds and free access to soup pot and salad bar!! Satiation.

Dinner: PAM (Potato and Meat, namely beef sausages) and toasted flatbread. Realised it was too late to cook rice after I was done with the PAM, couldn't wait, so I just whacked the bread. 2 birds with 1 stone!

Nothing much happened today, I only have this pic to account for:

Dinner: Takeout from Noorsiah's Kitchen. Beef curry, chicken drumstick and sambal stringbean tofu.

Did a mime for a mock drama exam today, acted as a burglar cracking a safe. Got an average score but good critique. The others' performances ranged from the dull (doing everyday stuff at home like waking up, washing up, cooking etc) to the ingenious (earthquake) to the overly complicated (guy drives car knocks down pedastrian abandons car gets caught in rain slips and falls splills contents of bag gets mugged by a thug), and all that under 2 minutes per performer! Well that's the last we'll see of mime for now, moving on to monologues next week.

Dinner: Egg fried rice consisting kailan, baby spinach, mushrooms, chicken and beef sausage. Messy but nommy.

Lunch: Ultra decadent breakfast burritos!

Flatbread - Cheese - Strassburg ham - Baby spinach leaves -> sunny-side up egg -> beef sausage

Left: First attempt, heating the bread after cooking the meats. Note broken yolk. Fail =[

Right: Cross-section. Try to make out the different layers!

Left: Second attempt. Gave up on trying to roll it since it would just be a mess like the first time, ate it with utensils this time.

Right: Looks so nice, like hors d'ouvere

Went to the Old Arts building for usual Literature lecture. Used the toilets there, and their toilets are full of sensible graffiti. Mind you, this is an arts building.

Little dialogue/deduction on the right cubicle wall.

And on the left...the entire script of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. I kid you not, the entire wall was covered in the script.

Dinner: Poor-man's dinner to counteract the indulgent lunch. Canned tuna (sweet chili flavour) on rice with kailan and wasabi furikake.

I might add that there was a stormfront approaching Melbourne at approx 1700 250809, as such the lecturer let us off half an hour early so we could commute home before the storm hits and public transports shut down. Free time off whoop!

However, at time of posting, there hasn't been any indication of the deadly 120kmh winds that were predicted to hit the city, only a very chilly downpour that lasted less than an hour and a sharp drop in the temperature, pushing the min temp limits.

Today is Fish day! Namely Salmon!

Lunch: Mega burrito with wholemeal flatbread, salmon fillets, baby spinach leaves and lined with mash and some mayo. M-m-m-Monster Burrito!

Started to burst leaks at the bottom halfway through, so I gave up and just ate it like any civilised person would, with a fork and knife.

Decided to do something with the leftover mash from yesterday, and what better way to post-process already processed spuds than to make potato cakes! Used cornflour because I didn't have regular flour.

First batch of potato cakes turned out crispy and nice, but a tad too difficult to flip and tended to break easily. Tasted like lumpy rosti.

So I added an egg to the rest (bad move) and a few more teaspoons of cornflour, then gave it a good working over before cooking it.

The potato cakes turned out...like pancakes. Eggy pancakes. Oh well, atleast they still taste good, but they gave me "木薯糕" vibes, smell and texture wise.

The star of the show! The last of the salmon fillet! A little small though. Look at how fresh and pink the flesh is! And that's after I froze and thawed it out!

Dinner: S&P Salmon Fillet with potato cakes and wilted baby spinach salad. Threw the spinach leaves in the hot pan after the fish was done, tossed it around to soak up the remaining oils in the pan and wilt it a little. Mmm delish! Though the fish was a little overdone on the outside, but the inside was perfect like last time! Perhaps I was using too high a heat, and seared the outside a little too much.

Went marketing at Queen Vic again today, grabbed some beef sausages and a slab of Atlantic Tasmanian Salmon fillet.

Dinner: Soy and garlic infused salmon fillet with potato mash and chinese broccoli. I must say the kailan wasn't the best idea to go with the fish, but maybe it's because I didn't cook it long enough, only wilted it slightly. The mashed potato was a tad too lumpy too, didn't have a potato masher at hand.

The salmon turned out perfect! Seared on the outside but moist on the inside! Oh so good, makes me hungry just thinking of it.

Miss a day, huge backlog. Lesson to be learned: Be consistent.

210809

Breakfast: French toast using the 2 ends of the loaf.

Lunch: Curry Chicken Don at Don Don.

Awesome bar counter at Don Don, such a variety of liquors on display/sale! Noteworthy was the bottle of Absinthe Blue.

The EAP class had a surprise for Neralie (our EAP tutor) after class: a birthday cake! She had her 50th last weekend, and let us off early from class (last class on Friday). So the others felt they had to do something, so this week they bought a (strawberry cheese) cake for her. She was pleasantly surprised (who wouldn't be? everybody loves cake), and we sang her a (belated) birthday song, cut the cake, hung around and chatted for like half an hour. And all was well.

Dinner: Random stir-fry, consisting broccoli, carrot, mushroom and chicken strips.

Went to Zitai's place for a little sinful indulgence. Here's Miu Miu (his cat) occupying my (warmed) seat while I went to get a drink. Charming.

220809

Breakfast: Toast with Salami and a sunny-side-up.

Went shopping/walkabouts in the afternoon. Took a tram all the way down to Federation Square stop to get me some Lord of the Fries! Here pictured with Vietnamese (chilli mayo) sauce on it. Not too shabby, mayo wasn't too overpowering and had a subtle eggy hint to it, like it was handmade.

There was this band playing in the middle of the compound where I got my fries. They were making awesome music and drew a huge crowd. The violins were good.

Saw this misshapen pikachu outside EB games as I was walking up Swanston to QV. The two girls pictured gave it a huge hug after I took the shot. So cute la.

Swarming pigeons in a clearing. A little kid tried to kick/chase/scream at/scare them but failed ultimately.

Dinner: Yesterday's leftovers, fried-rice style. Left it cooking a wee bit too long, egg had gone from fluffy to dry.

Ok I realise I've been having a lot of take-away lately. Hopefully I can get out of my rut and back to cooking my own meals soon!

Lunch: Union House chinese, chicken stir fry (trace amounts of chicken) and sweet&sour pork (sans sweet&sour).

Dinner: Pad Thai from Ying Thai (plus puny chicken wing leftover from the whole chicken).

Pad Thai was so-so, not very worth it, but the ingredients were fresh, at least.

Not pictured: Awesome Lemon Sorbet and Freddo's Surprise from Il Dolce Freddo.

Whoops, missed another post again!

18/08/09

Put together a stir fry with the last of the chicken breast, with onions, green peppers and broccoli. Yum Lunch.

Dinner: Lunch part 2 with a fried egg on top.

19/08/00

Breakfast: Toast with salami scrambled eggs

Lunch: Sinful indulgence heh.

Dinner: Grabbed a quick takeaway at Minang. Nasi Padang with mixed noodles, mixed veg and lamb rendang. Veg was squeaky and raw-ish, characteristic of veg here.

Went for the mahjong tournament afterwards, didn't do well at all, didn't manage to move to the next round. Oh well, atleast I had fun, and managed to dick around freely. Going again tomorrow to spectate on the finals, and perhaps get some pad thai and freddo's gelato! Nom.