Weekend started early for us although Friday morning and afternoon was kind of hectic. In the evening we had a great BBQ (or should I say Barbe - the OZ way) on the roof top of our friend's (Firdaus aka Possuman. LOL) place near Queen Victoria Market. The city scenary was simply great and we could see the sun setting. It was a terribly hot day but good thing I could feel this gentle breeze blowing from the roof top. After the barbe we had Blackjack marathon (10pm plus to 4am. This activity was not planned!) at his place. Imagine we didn't know time was passing so fast so you could guess the amount of fun we had. No money was involved but still we had all the fun.
Saturday - Our body refuesed to leave the bed having gone to bed at 5am. So we finally woke up at 1:30pm and did a quick wash up and rushed to the market. It was raining super heavily and parts of St. Kilda road was flooded. Traffic was bad too but anyway we managed to get our stuff from Queen Victoria and later seafood at Prahran Market.
I usually like Saturday's dinner coz it is not planned. It is dependent on what we can get from the auction at Prahran Market and us being creative on how we cook or prepare. Today's was fun - Ken bought LIVE Western Australian Yabbies! Good thing coz we wanted to go visit a Yabby farm which is 1.5hrs drive away from Melbourne City so now we are not making the trip.
 Live WA Yabbies |
 Became more active when we sprayed water at them |
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 This particular one was real active |
 Whole Perch. We are going to steam it for dinner one of these nights. |
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 Boiling the LIVE yabbies. Cruel? |
 Turning red |
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 Yum! |
 Our only meal of the day! |
Late last night or rather early this morning we went possum feeding at Carlton Park. Basically we wanted to finish the bread that was left from the previous feed.
For those who do not know what a possum is ... well they are marsupials and are native to Australia. Some people treat possum as pest. Anyway they can be found commonly in many trees and they are nocturnal creatures. We notice that their vision is not very good but gathered that they have a keen sense of smell.
Oh this time round, we saw 2 possums and we pressume that they are mothers as we suspect in their pouches are baby possum. I googled and confirmed -
"The possum spends the first four months of their lives in their mother's pouch. By the time they are six months old the young possums are living outside of the pouch all the time."
Source:http://www.kcc.org.nz/pests/possum/resources.asp
 Approaching us with caution |
 They can get real friendly (Hmmm...well there's food rite) |
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 Possum talk?!? |
 Aren't they cute? |
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 Feeding on white bread |
 This particular possum is very shy and it seems smaller in size as compared to the others |
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 Baby possum in mother's pouch |
 Foutain and a colonial style (i think) building in the park. Nice |
This evening the sky was filled with hues of orange. The sunsets in Australia is simply breathtaking. This is the second time we saw such awesome sunset in Melbourne.
Pictures were taken from our apartment and the carpark. It was about 8:40pm then.
 8:38pm-First shot from our apartment |
 8:39pm-Sky was illuminated with hues of orange |
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 8:46pm-The sun was going down real fast. Shot was taken from our carpark |
 8:47pm-Another shot from the carpark |
Time 12:02am. Location Pran Central. Fire alarm in our building went off and within minutes 2 fire engines arrived. We looked out of our window and saw people looking up but the firemen seem calm and were not in a hurry. So we just ignored the alarm but eventually Ken went out to the corridors to check and decided that we should make our way down just to be on the safe side. Thank God it did not affect the residential apartments.
The luggage shop on the ground level was filled with smoke when we arrived at the scene. 2 firemen were trying to break into the shop to investigate. I guess the sprinklers went off as the streets were wet.
 Fire Engine parked beneath our apartment |
 Another fire engine parked just outside the scene with alot of onlookers |
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 Firemen at work investigating |
 The luggage shop was filled with smoke |
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 Streets are wet |
 Firemen crew |
Dinner tonight is Italiano. We had a successful "catch" this afternoon! Besides getting some assorted fish fillets and whole trouts, we also managed to get our hands on some scallops and mussels at bargain prices. I will be embrassed or rather I will be spoiling market if I wrote how much I paid for them. ;-P
 1/2 dozen of Scallops |
 2 dozens of Mussels |
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 Lite seasoning and some herbs |
 Stir fried mussels |
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 Garlic and olive spaghetti with tomatoes and mushrooms |
 Ken's lot - Spaghetti con Mitili |
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 Serena's lot - Spaghetti con Pettini |
 Mamamia! |
Tonight we have company! Our friends Andrew and Jocelyn are popping by for dinner. So we decided to go simple and just bake everything!
On the menu were baked sweet potatoes, pumpkin, herbed chicken drumsticks, marlin kebab and coleslaw. For dessert I made mango pudding and they brought a lovely cake. The cake was splendid but unfortunatley we have no idea what cake it is.
Not much pictures though coz we were busy running around today besides cooking. Come on we have other business to do besides cooking all day! We have a life man! LOL
 Lot of Marlin Kebab |
 Can you make out what other goodies are there? |
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 Look how beautiful and sinful the cake is |
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Oh for those who want to attempt the Onde Onde ... One tip you've got to eat them all the day itself coz what happened was when we tried it today the skin was hard. We thought of steaming them briefly so that the skin may get softer but have not tried it yet. So best bet - make them fresh, eat them all on the same day and share them with your neighbours!
There are so many local snacks that we miss back home and the only way to feed the crave is to make them ourselves. It's amazing coz we didn't know we could cook before we arrived. :P Well, I guess back home in Singapore, we are too use to driving to the hawker center to feed that crave.
We made 90 plus onde onde today. Can't imagine I use to buy them (10 pieces) for S$3 from Maxwell Market and I need to pre-order! Now I can be a glutton and eat till I am sick of it for the next couple of years.
Verdict: Excellent! I am not kidding.
 Ken filling the onde onde with gula melaka (palm sugar) |
 Waiting to be boiled |
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 Once its cooked, it will float |
 Coat them with some grated coconut |
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 Yummy |
 Should I sell 10 pieces for A$5? Labour is expensive here |
Verdict: Not bad!
 Savoury filling |
 Yam balls |
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 Trying to squeeze more filling in |
 Yam puff No. 1 |
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 Final Product. Shape ain't like those commercial ones coz it's homemade. Haha |
 Delicious |
The weather is turning cold again. Yesterday evening was 16 degrees celsius and we gladly welcome it! We finally went for our walk after 1 week plus of break. Hah blame it on the heat wave we've been experiencing.
 Doesn't this look like a scene from some kung fu movie with swordmen and swordwomen floating around |
 Vibrant colors. Lily family I suppose |
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 Dusk |
 The Ian Potter Foundation Children's Garden |
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 Observatory |
 Sunset |
 Too greedy! |
 Our feast |