Filling Good?

My first Chinese New Year in 15? Years

2009-01-26T12:47:00.002+11:00

Well I will be wrapping up this blog with a few more shots which were taken in Australia but never posted due to the mammoth task of moving overseas. Be pre-warned it is not for the faint hearted or the light in pocket. But Richard and I have already moved and are here nicely cooking away in the humidity.

Today is the first day of the lunar new year, my first here in Singapore in about 15 years. Still haven't quite gotten back into the swing of things as I used to love it even way more than Christmas. Mostly due to the fact that I could see all my relatives and visit their homes. My cousins would show me what was new and cool with them and of course you get a much fatter piggy bank from all the traditional gifts of money in red packets. And not to forget the food!

Anyway, hope one and all have a wonderful Chinese New Year of the Ox with lots of yummy goodness. May your larders always be full and may you be blessed and successful in your every endeavour.

Where in the world is Rachel?

2008-12-28T23:05:00.002+11:00

Haven't posted in more than a month due to the fact that we are moving ... not just within the same town, or state or even country ... but back to the country of my birth. The house is shambles, we are sleeping on the floor and yet there is still heaps of packing and cleaning to be done.

Flying off on the 6th but due to work pressures, am working up until the 31st!! Country dentistry around christmas time is extremely busy. Have been taking a few pics so hopefully can do a Bathurst post of the town and food before I fly out but not sure how it will go.

One thing though is that the blog won't be right with the same URL so have been toying with a few other names such as islandfillings, seachangefillings, urbanfillings to name a few. Any other suggestions?

Anyway off to packing again. Hope to write again before the new year but if not, hope one and all have a wonderful New Year!

Trail Riding at Yarrabin

2008-11-10T23:33:00.006+11:00

Even though our lives are getting more and more upside down (all will be revealed soon) and every weekend is full up until the start of January, we had to squeeze in a trail ride as Richard had gotten it for me for a present last anniversary and it was due to expire soon. So two weekends ago, we went to the sleepy village of O'Connell about 20 minutes drive from Bathurst and went for a trail ride. This was at a farmstay/ranch place called Yarrabin.

The people there were quite friendly and helpful but also laid back so you didn't feel hurried or rushed. I ticked a beginner level of riding as I have not done much at all, especially in the last 7 years so I got paired with an old horse, Cocoa. He was always much more interested in eating and drinking than trotting so I guess we were quite well matched.

You got a rock to stand on to help you get on your horse. Richard gets help adjusting his stirrups after getting on his horse, Dan.

The horses seemed to be a mixed type breed and all of them were pretty placid so we petted them before it was time to get on.
We went through some forests and I felt pretty challenged as the guides tried to encourage you to get to the next level. For me this was learning to trot. It was a tad bit scary and I kept having images of smashing into a low branch ala Hollywood movies. However, I got a bit more confident as the ride wore on. Our guides would watch and give us tips to help us get more comfortable. Richard even got to canter.

Some of the views were gorgeous and we got to see some kangaroos and of course cows on the property. Times like that make me feel really fortunate to be living out here and have all this fresh air and beautiful scenery so readily accessible. I wish I had taken more time to go out and engage in more activities like these when they are literally in my backyard. The other people on the ride were a bit more experienced but there were a few guides with us and they always made sure someone stayed with Richard and myself. While the trotting bits were pretty exciting, I sure was glad of the times it was just a walk!

Every muscle was aching in my body the next few days. No wonder most horse people are in shape. Trotting is good when you get in rhythm with your horse but when you're not ... you feel about as classy as a sack of potatoes bouncing along.

Speaking of which, these aren't the best photos but Richard got so excited about this dish that he made me take photos of it and write down what I did. It doesn't have a name but it is loosely a cross between a lagsane and a moussaka.

I made up a meat sauce with pasta sauce, mince and spinach. 225gms mince to a 375gm jar of sauce and small packet of frozen spinach. Then, I layered thin slices of eggplant (about half a large one) with cheese, the meat sauce and a small sweet potato sliced thin. I used a parmesan type cheese as well as cheddar for extra flavour.

Here is a picture of a slice. It was really flavoursome and the sweet potato really leant an extra dimension to the tomato sauce and all the cheesey and tomato flavours were absorbed by the eggplant. So this was a creation I was pretty happy about :) Any suggestion on a name?

High Tea @ Home

2008-10-21T22:35:00.004+11:00

We had a high tea catch up with my orthodontist employer on the weekend. We had to squeeze it in as the weeks are flying by and he and his wife are also terribly busy. This is a photo of the set up in our living room before they arrived. One of the charms of living in a 104 year old house is that it has fireplaces. The dining room was the first room we finished doing up and it simply needed some curtains put in. The buffet on the left of the fireplace was from ikea.
Cheese platter with grana padano cheese and a King Island Dairy Stormy washed rind cheese, a pork and pine nut terrine from a local french patisserie, Legall. Also, home made finger sandwiches with smoked salmon, philly cream cheese and cucumber alternated with mango, avocado sweetchilli salsa, smoked chicken and snow pea sprouts. The padano was nice and rich and nutty, the stormy is one of our favourites for a soft cheese having a lot of depth to the orangey outside but a sweet and buttery inside.
We also had little sweet treats for Legall sold at average $2.50 each chocolate choux, japonaise (merengue type biscuit sandwiched with hazelnut cream), fruit tart and lemon tarts. All of them were outstanding, the chocolate choux had a really nice and rich chocolate filling. The lemon tart was a bit bitey and sour for my husband but I found it perfect and the pastry was light as air and biscuity.

They brought champagne and so we had a champagne high tea! It was the first time his wife and seen our place and she really liked the high decorated pressed metal ceilings so I guess that might be a post for another day.

Legall Patisserie can be found at 56 Keppel St Bathurst (02) 6331 5800

Anniversary dinner @ 9inety 2wo

2008-10-12T00:15:00.004+11:00

5 years ago on the 27th of September, Richard and I got married. For better or for worse it has been a quick journey. We have discovered alot about ourselves and each other. I am always grateful that he moved out to the country and we could date not long distance and later after we got married also found a job in the country.

We spent alot of our anniversary day working. I worked in the morning and then in the afternoon we went to hire a floor sander and sanded the floors of our deck - I guess we might be getting more like country folk than we think! I recall watching a show on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation - the documentary channel) when they interviewed women who worked on a property ( thats the local name for farms or ranches) about relationships and romance. The lady replied, " Well we work on fencing posts together... I guess thats pretty romantic."

Well the city part of us got all dressed up after a hard days work and went to another modern Australian restaurant in town. Our favourite, The Treehouse seems to have lost its chef. We have learnt this is quite common in country restaurants ... the food business has quite a high turnover in staffing and chefs and owners.

Anyhow, this to us is a second favourite and we come here for their lunches when Richard is on school holidays as I work across the road on Wednesdays. It has a creative name 9inety 2wo as its address is Ninety Two Bentinck St.

As you can see it has quite an extensive menu to suit most tastes. We started off with some appetizers.
The cumin roast olive salad - we thought it was an actual salad but the olives were quite tasty and although a generous amount, went quickly. The semi dried tomato and rocket pesto dip with flat bread. This was freshly made, the dips full of flavour and again a generous serve for the price.
Here is a shot of the room which shows it has nice ambience. It wasn't too crowded so it was quite romantic. In the winter, the double sided fireplace is always going.

My main, the braised lamb shoulder in tomatoes with buttered kipfler potatoes, green beans and lemon gremolata. I began to understand why this restaurant is not as popular as it could be. In the past we must have ordered all the hits. For the first time, I got a miss. This was quite an oily mess in the pot. Whilst the lamb was quite tender, it tasted like the stews my mum used to throw in the crockpot before work. There was no hint of lemon gremolata. The best part of the dish was the beans and potatoes and I couldn't finish any of it because the stew was that dense. The potatoes were really well baked with crispy skins and tender flesh, the beans were firm and tasty. It was a pity that for the first time, I had to leave half a main. We ordered a side of steamed vegetables. The portion seems to have shrunk since the last time, however, they were well done and still firm and crunchy yet not underdone.

Richard's main of chicken breast kiev with Oberon black truffle and herb butter, kipfler potatoes,cabbage and green peppercorn cream. The chicken was really well done, not overcooked. I tasted a bit of it but it was very quickly finished so at least one of us had an enjoyable main!

Ahh the best part ... dessert. This was pure genius of layered chocolate cake with fudge and a shot of espresso poured over it topped with ice cream affogato style and served with pistachio biscotti. We were pretty full but shared this. It really made you want more but our tummies had no more real estate.
A trio of coffees. Our dessert, my irish coffee which is really well done here and Richard's cappuccino. I'm glad that Bathurst has pretty good dining options for a town of 35,000. Hopefully we can touch on a few more before the end of the year.

P/S That was a shot of one of our mini- wedding cakes saved from 5 years ago which lives in a tin at the back of our freezer. We contemplated eating it this year but thought we might save it for our 10th!

9inety 2wo

92 Bentinck St
Bathurst NSW 2795
+612 63321757

Lebanese Sweets 2.0 !

2008-09-22T23:00:00.003+10:00

On a roll after my last encounter with a lebanese dessert shop, I decided I had to visit another. The Good Living Guide had a brief review about a new lebanese sweet shop that had opened in Parramatta, Sydney. This is a branch of a chain in lebanon called Sea Sweet.

The cafe was modern and clean. We arrived just before 6 pm and thus was not a popular time for desserts or coffees but it was good as it meant we were served promptly. People wandered in to check out the lebanese sweets on offer in the glass showcases to the left. Like El Sweetie, Sea Sweet also catered for Aussie tastes with many different western cakes and pastries on offer as well.

However, I was there to quench my curiosity to try new things. We studied the middle eastern dessert menu for a while. (click on it for a bigger version)

The fruit cocktail is a signature dish of theirs, supposedly with a sweetened pureed avacado base, fresh fruits and topped with kashta and nuts. However, we decided to leave that for another time. Richard went for the Kashta Mix.

This was 5 pieces of assorted pastries made on kashta, a clotted cream sweet cheese. The kashta here was very different to the one we had at El Sweetie! It was more savoury and had a texture less like whipped marshmallow and more like cottage cheese. I really liked this version much better. It went so well with the assorted crispy and flaky pastry laced with rose syrup. There was a little dish of additional syrup to pour if neccessary, however I found them perfect the way they were. The kashta found in each pastry was slightly different too, laced with different nuts.

I went for Knefe -Cheese. The waitress asked if I wanted the bun filled or unfilled. I said that I had never tried it before and so I wasn't sure. She was surprised that I was trying this and commented on my bravery. She then suggested she put the bun on the side but when she served it she gave instructions to open the bun, scoop all the mixture in, pour over syrup and press down and enjoy.

I decided to try the Knefe au naturale first before trying it with their "signature bun".

Action shot of the stretchy cheese.

Wow! One bite of this stuff and I was in heaven. Because we arrived on 6 pm (if you read the menu, it is only available at certain times and in the evening only after 6 pm) The kenefe was freshly made. It was a stretchy mozarella type slightly sweet cheese sandwiched between layers of sweet buttery, crunchy semolina. The cheese was slightly chewy yet melted in the mouth. It did not have a chees-ey type flavour at all and neither was it oily. It was extremely tasty and I remember the pillowy texture more than anything else *sigh*.

I ate some of it on half the bun and finished all the knefe but left the other half a bun. Richard had 4 pieces of his and left the large triangular piece. The waitress congratulated us on our effort. We took the last piece away as well as bought some of the baklava and other assorted lebanese pastries. The take away container was really cool. It had the company logo embossed in it and was the quality of a tupperware type container!

My long black (average) which came with one of their petit fours (nice and light).

While we were deciding which ones to get, the guy behind the counter gave us a few sample pieces to try! We were just about exploding at this point so I had to nibble on mine and put the rest away in the take away container. Our take away selection of sweets which we have started sampling.

The filo here is much more buttery and light than at El Sweetie, almost too? flaky for me. I also found the semolina in the Namoura not as crunchy and a bit too sweet. The nut ratio in the sweets is a bit higher though and the pistachios are chunkier within the pastries themselves.

Personally, the eat in desserts here win hands down. The service was much better with really friendly staff. However, I tend to like the pastries themselves at El Sweetie better. Price wise, both places are a great bargain. Our total including a Diet coke for Richard and the take away came to $33.50. We didn't even need to have dinner after that. Having a whole dessert for dinner was a first for me. I have to say I quite like the idea and would be open to doing it again!

Sea Sweet Australia
354-356 Church St Parramatta
1300 90 80 70

Having a whale of a time

2008-09-11T22:56:00.007+10:00

Pardon the pun ... this post is about 3 months old but it has been sitting at the back of my mind for a while now as it was quite a memorable event. It will be the last in the sequence of our weekend away to the south coast during the Queens Birthday long weekend in June. We made our way to the town of Huskisson which was about half an hours drive south of Gerringong. It turned out to be a really touristy type of town with your ubiquitous ice cream store, numerous take away shops touting the usual Aussie fast food such as fish and chips, hamburgers, roast chicken, tired salads etc. However, we were there just to check out some whale action! So after booking ourselves on a 3 hour cruise, we decided to get some lunch before the tour started. We knew we didn't feel like fast food so we decided on one of the two cafes. This one, names Supply was also moonlighting as a deli and corner store with some tired looking, expensive fruit and vegetables. Also some "gourmet" type cookies, condiments and candy. I had a pumpkin, goats cheese and baby spinach salad.

At $12.50 it was passable... tasty, a bit greasy but on the smaller side. It was a blessing in disguise. Richard's burger, also $12.50 This was pretty good! I think he got the better deal. It was on toasted Turkish bread, with char grilled veggies, onion jam, bacon, a thick burger patty and of course being Aussie ... beetroot! After lunch, we walked Magic at the off leash area before finding him some undercover parking to snooze in the car whilst we went off. Our vessel to bringeth us ~~whaling~~ whale watching A picture taken from the top tier of the boat of the shore opposite the departure point. Quite pretty ... We chanced upon the resident dolphins within the bay and the skipper gave us a bit of a commentary about them. They were really cute and swam alongside the boat for a bit.

This is called point perpendicular. It formed one of the sides of the "gateway" separating Jervis Bay from the big bad ocean.

However, in order to spot whales, one had to travel out to the ocean .. hence we became whale paparazzi. The boat was literally tailing these whales, getting as close as was legal to them so we could get a good glimpse of these beautiful creatures. We only spotted "teenage" type whales though and they were extremely hard to see against the gray sea. I guess camouflage is good. You only knew they were there from the occasional sea spray from their spouts.

The sea was mighty choppy out in the open ocean. The smiling staff handed out hospital type seasick bags efficiently as soon as we were past the headlands. They were pretty used to it and the rocking didn't seem to bother them. Unfortunately, it bothered about a quarter of us. Richard succumbed to it first, followed by myself. And as I mentioned before, I was glad My lunch was half the size of his because, with the hospital style sick bags (complete with twist lock) you could see exactly what volume of stomach contents had been expelled! FYI Richards was an impressive 1 L (4 quarts!) and mine was 500ml. We returned to shore after three hours feeling pretty weary. If it was any consolation, the skipper mentioned cheerily that we did much better than the morning tour group!

Supply
Shop 1 54 Owen St
Huskisson 2540 NSW
Phone: (02) 4441 5815

Jervis Bay Whales
50 Owen St
Huskisson 2540
Phone (02) 4441 6341
http://www.jervisbaywhales.com.au/

Flat out ...

2008-08-11T22:45:00.003+10:00

*Sigh* been so busy lately that i feel the days are going by like lightning. I love spending time with friends both here in Bathurst and in Sydney but work has also been getting busier. Hence, I get home later and my whole day gets thrown out more. Been also getting to know more Bathurst people so we tend to do stuff in the evenings or on weekends, leaving less time for housework and other neccessary but boring stuff. I have still yet to unpack and sort out some cartons from our move last April!

Its odd that twice now I have noticed that patient base seems to pick up just after the two year mark. It must take that amount of time for word to get around and for people to decide they need to see a dentist again and since they survived the last visit, they probably could bear to see you again.

I know our last move was neccessary for Richard to not have to drive 1000 kms a week and be zombie-fied every night. However, since I left Cowra, there has been no one taking up the position at my old surgery. This is sad as most dentists are unwilling to work in the country. Most city folk don't even know something exists over the Blue Mountains! Hence, the waiting list in Cowra to see my old employers is about a month long, even with him working until 7 pm or later most nights!

As a result, some of my old Cowra regulars make the 100 km trip to come and see me! Also some other people in desperate toothaches as well. Its a fair drive just to see a health care professional. Hopefully someone will take up the position soon.

Just as we were getting comfortable, the wheels may be in motion for rusticfillings to not be so rustic in 2009. Its not concrete yet but we had talked about it over the years and there is probably going to be another move at the end of this year. More details as time goes on ...

Anyway, hopefully will get to post more on assorted stuff soon. Meanwhile, put two pics of my most favourite dog in the world up as I haven't done so in a while :)

Winter comfort food - orr nee

2008-07-27T15:35:00.004+10:00

It is right in the heart of winter here now, with heavy morning frosts and our water taps froze a couple of times last week. But not just because it is cold and one's thoughts automatically wander to warm rich food, I have been yearning on and off the last few years to have a teo chew (chau zhou) yam dessert my grandmother used to make. It is not commonly found but it can be bought at a few selected stalls in Singapore. I bought a serve the last time we were back but it just wasn't the same. Only hers and a few Teochew restaurants just taste right.

Unfortunately, my grandmother is now bedridden and doesn't communicate anymore, so I am unable to let her know how much I miss her or her cooking. Well I guess I could but realistically I am not sure that she would understand. The worst part about being this far away from the place I grew up in is that each time I return, she seemed that much more frail and the last two years, she couldn't recognise me anymore. The previous years when I held her hand, she still squeezed it although she didn't say much. And of course even 6 or 7 years ago, I could still talk to her on the telephone.

Anyway, the last time in Sydney, I actually bought a taro (purple yam) and decided to have a hand at making it. I always knew that the original recipe would be quite unhealthy as it calls for copius amounts of lard and sugar. I decided to research it on the internet. A google search of "orr nee", "or nee" and "yam paste" brought about some recipe results. The simplest of which was found on Rasa Malaysia's blog. Although there is a great picture from wikipedia here

It is sometimes made without pumpkin but it is very often made with ginko nuts. I didn't have any gingko nuts but for those interested, there is a recipe here for those with access to ginko nuts.

Taro Paste country healthy style

1 Taro (about 500-600 gms)- cubed
1 cup soy milk
half cup castor sugar
2 tbsp peanut oil
water as desired

Some recipes suggest to boil the taro pieces but I know my grandma used to steam them. I microwaved them until tender. I then transferred them into a large saucepan and started mashing them and adding some water, the soy milk and caster sugar and oil slowly over a low heat until it was a smooth paste. For those who would prefer a much smoother and richer (and more authentic) taste, lard or more oil can be used in the place of the water and soy milk. Sugar can also be added to the desired taste, however, the main aim of the taro is to get the rich tasty texture and the sugar enhances rather than dominates the flavour.

Or nee is sometimes made with coconut milk or served with a splash of coconut milk. This is probably the southeast asian version. Amazingly coconut milk is difficult to find in the country. Most supermarts sell coconut cream but not milk.

I enjoyed mine with a splash more soy milk which added to the nutty taste. While it didn't taste like grandma's it was enough to remind me of home and was definitely comforting! Always served hot, to me it is like hot ice-cream!

A blue lagoon afternoon

2008-07-23T23:22:00.006+10:00

The boat usually cruises while we lunch to another island or another beach on an island. At about 2:15 the afternoon shore excursions start. Most days it was to a beach where once again, we would park ourselves somewhere.

The crew would set up the afternoon tea table but if you notice to the right of it, another table is also set up... yes! It is a massage table for those who would like a beach massage under the coconut trees. It cost FJ $30 for 20 minutes but neither of us got round to getting one. We were too busy trying to fit in snorkelling which can actually be quite addictive!

A word of warning about coconut trees to those who haven't had much experience with them... coconuts can actually fall quite suddenly without warning. Hence it is always wise to see where you are parking your mat. Richard was quite shocked to find after coming back with a scone for afternoon tea one day, a coconut about a foot from his mat when there wasn't one 3 minutes before! I am sure if Newton had been lying under a coconut tree he wouldn't have discovered gravity.

For something different, one afternoon we had a sulu (local word for sarong) tying demonstration. I learnt about six different ways to tie it other than just as a long skirt! They also demonstrated how the guys wear it, tucked in closer to the front rather than the side.
Yet another day, on one of the islands with a hill, Henry the cruise director organised a hill climb (aka hike aka bushwalk). The view was quite magnificent.
This was a pic of a village house on one of the islands we swam at. We were told not to approach any of the villages as it was a big cultural no-no unless we had been welcomed through the official Yaqona ceremony. At most of the beaches though some of the village women would set up a little shell markets selling mostly sulus, laquered shells or necklaces and bracelets made from shells and seeds.
Outside pic of what was our home for 7 days. There was usually an afternoon snorkel session followed by some afternoon tea at 3:30 pm. At 5 pm, the tender boats would start to take us back to the boat where there would be a large drop in water pressure as most people would freshen up for the evening.

Somewhere between 6:30 and 7:30 pm, some of the crew memebers would start playing music up in the bar/ lounge deck. There would usually be a tray or two of canapes and most of the passengers would wander in after they had freshened up. There would be chatting and laughter accompanied by a cocktail or drink. It was on the first night that we learnt there was a couple right from our town on the boat as well! What a small world! Although we had never met them before, the guy who owns a printing business actually printed for both the companies we work for.

The crew members would also come around and encourage us to do the island shuffle. This is a pic of Richard with Serevina one of the lovely girls who always helped with the morning and afternoon teas. The island shuffle consisted mostly of just stepping a few steps forward and back, holding each others hands behind the back. It was quite fun and there was no pressure for fancy steps.

Some of the nights had themes such as indian night, fancy hat night and fancy dress night. Not everyone participated but we did get into the spirit of things and it made for a few laughs. (Pics in a future post ... maybe ....)

At about 8 pm (kids ate earlier) we would all troop down for dinner. Most nights it was served buffet style but the first and third night was a sit down four course dinner with a choice of entree, soup, main and dessert. A lot of the meals were quite standard western fare. I was quite self conscious of snapping pics so these were the only two I snuck in.

My first entree at the captains dinner. Prawns in coconut broth with island fronds. The fronds were nice and tasted alot like seaweed. The coconut broth was served cool and was very mild in flavour. My chicken main at the dinner on the third night. Crumbed chicken stuffed with local spinach. Filling and tasty but nothing to write home about. Was sitting next to one of the girls from California who has finished her SATs and is going to UCLA in Fall. She said " I can't believe you just took a picture of your food." I tried to explain blogging to her but she didn't quite get it. Sadly, she also told us who won the Amazing Race by accident *sigh* Teenagers nowadays! If we ever have kids I hope they metamorph right into adults bypassing the teen stage.
Every night after dinner which would conclude at about 9 pm, most people would just head back to their cabins. There was a quiz night one night and a disco night another but I think most people weren't night owls. Our fellow passengers were lovely and we made quite firm friends with a few of them. There were roughly 10 from NZ, 14 from Aus, 11 from the US, 2 from Norway and 2 from Italy. The largest contingent was from Fiji with 22 crew members. I can't believe that they do the same cruise 50 weeks of the year, yet they are so friendly and enthusiastic, you feel like you are just joining them for the first time! They cruise the 6 nights and have one night at home with their families and do 6 weeks on and one week off. That is a pretty hard life! Yet they are always laughing and giggling either with us or amongst themselves. Hopefully the sunny island attitude will stay with me the remainder of these cold winter months.

and there was this one time, at snorkel camp ....

2008-07-19T20:56:00.005+10:00

As we have had quite a stressful few months, we looked forward quite a lot to this trip, yet at the same time, besides reading up on a review on Cruisecritic.com we didn't do much preparation or have many expectations.

A typical day ran according to a schedule which was placed in your room during the evening turn down service the day before. While the activities were optional, unless feeling unwell, most people would participate in them. Since most of the day was spent swimming or snorkelling, after the first day, it felt a little like camp ... so Richard and I dubbed it snorkel camp :)

The cabins were quite roomy for ship standards. There was a small wardrobe and pantry/ minibar area with dressing table and lcd TV mounted on the wall. The LCD TV was merely turned off since there was no TV reception. There was a DVD player in the public bar area which you could put your own DVD in or borrow one (not sure how many titles they had) and then go back to your room and watch it. We only did this one quiet evening.

The bed was queen sized but had a strange lump in the middle. The bathroom was sort of a Formula1 motel moulded plastic type shower/ toilet combo. Fortunately there was also a vanity unit/ mirror to store your toiletries. The lovely crew would also make the floor mat fan shaped to pretty it up everyday. When we first arrived, they had also placed Singapore Orchids here and there for decoration.
I guess I'll do it as a two parter and run through a typical day in luxury snorkel camp. I will hopefully also finish off two separate posts on a village visit and a school visit.

There was the option of an early morning swim everyday with a wake up knock on your cabin door at 6 am. Although we thought about it a few times, that is as far as it got.

Breakfast was served in the dining room from 7:30- 9 am. Most days we made it there by about 8:30 am. I didn't get to take any photos at breakfast but everyday there was a hot buffet of bacon, sausages, baked beans, tinned spaghetti and pancakes or french toast. There was an egg station set up with eggs to order, including made to order omelettes with a choice of mushroom, ham, onion, capsicum or the lot. We had this twice and it was very well made and yummy. There was always a fruit platter, bread next to a conveyor-belt toaster ( I love those!), cereal and yogurt.

At 9:15, a tender boat would take us out to the morning island. Most days we would actually have sepearte spots in the morning and afternoon. We would then take a beach mat and beach towel which was provided and set up a nice spot for ourselves on the beach.
Whilst we were reading or swimming or walking or lazing around, the crew would be busy going back to the boat and retrieving trestle tables, table cloths, urns etc.

At 10:30 or thereabouts (remember we are running on Fijian time) there would be a holler of "moooorning tea!" Thereabouts we would look up and most of us would mosey over to see what the pastry of the moment is. (There was a dedicated pastry chef on board). It was amazing that every time it would be something different but there was always a fruit platter with the standard watermelon, pineapple and pawpaws. There was always a selection of teas and freeze dried coffee.

This would always be closely followed around 11 am with "snooooorkelling!" Whereby we would don our fins, mask and snorkels and either swim out like our own school of strange fish or the tender boats would drop us off to the reef spot. If we were far from shore, they would always circle us to make sure we were safe.
I have never been snorkelling before (unless you count using a shower cap and putting over my face and planting it into the bath tub when I was 6) yet I owned my own mask and snorkel, bought at a fair from a bargain bin (but it was so cheeeap!) Well! I sure am glad I had my own and brought it along! Snorkelling is truly amazing and we were fortunate to have a few guides point things out to us as we swam along, telling us which things we could touch and which to avoid. Before we knew it, we would be slowly swimming back to shore or signalled back onto the shore. There would then be a quick pack up of our things on the beach and the tender boats brought us back to the big boat for lunch.

Lunch was usually about 1 pm. There was different themes for the hot food section such as stir fry day, burger day, pasta day, BBQ day (which was on shore for something different) etc. And there was always the salad bar. The food was nothing that would make you go "wow" - with the exception of a very tasty bolognaise sauce on pasta day which had everyone getting seconds, even people putting it in bread "sloppy joe" style. Yet it was always freshly cooked, hearty and satisfying.
There was a coffee machine which produced pretty good coffee.
And ... to our surprise, there would be a fruit based type dessert with lunch. There was fruit cocktail the first day, these bananas rolled in cocoa and freshly grated coconut (simple yet divine) the second, chocolate mousse a third, trifle a fourth etc.
Next post ... the rest of the day ....

The Lovo - A traditional Fijian Feast

2008-07-14T23:18:00.006+10:00

A week ago, we came back from Fiji, most of our time spent in the Yasawa Islands. Our home was the Fiji Princess for 6 of the 7 nights were were there. The cruise company, Blue Lagoon Cruises were awesome and the crew took really good care of us. It was a wonderful way to visit many different islands and beaches, see lots of marine life when snorkling as well as participate in cultural activities. More in future posts.

If I thought Bathurst was rustic, I hadn't seen anything yet! These islands don't have any telephone lines and the village generators are run only on special occasions. While almost all of the meals we had were quite westernised, my favourite and most memorable was the lovo. A special Fijian feast usually prepared only at huge celebrations such as weddings, we were fortunate that it was part of our tour to experience it and we were invited to watch the cooks prepare it.

First, a hole about only as deep as your arm up to your elbow is dug. Depending on how much you are cooking for, a typical size is about 2 by 2 metres. Firewood is placed in the hole and a fire is lit. Medium sized rocks are then piled on top of the fire. When the rocks start glowing hot and the firewood has collapsed so the rocks have sunk into the hole (needs a bit of gentle persuasion from a shovel),

it is time to make a "grill" on which the wrapped meat and root vegetables rest. This is made of layered banana leaf stems.

Next various meat such as sides of pork, lamb, whole fish wrapped in banana leafs or foil as well as the traditional root vegetables dalo (or taro), cassava and kumela (local sweet potato), are laid onto the strong stems. I can't believe they weaved the baskets housing the meats and veggies so intricately!

A blanket of banana leaves is then laid on top.

And yet more banana leaves ... can't have too many banana leaves!

This is followed by coconut? fronds

Then some sack cloth ...

And finally some tarp ... nothing like a bit of plastic for insulation

Although an island beach party was planned, we had to have dinner back on board the boat as a torrential rain storm hit in the evening. The crew so nicely ferried us and then later our dinner back in the rain!

Simeli the head stewart ran through the different meats and vegetables and a few additional dishes. This included a divine local raw fish salad known as kokoda (pronounced kokonda) and cooked curried vegetables and sauteed local spinach.

My plate from the buffet...
Clockwise from bottom, piece of taro, curried veggies, lamb, pork sitting on a bed of rourou, kumela, bit of fish and cassava to the left of the fish. The root vegetables were cut extremely big and chunky. Though tasty and tender, they were extremely starchy and filling so I couldn't finish them. The meat was spectacular, all of it was fork tender and had the most exquisite smoky flavour. I think the rourou (local spinach) might also have been cooked in the lovo then sauteed because it also had that smoky flavour.

More pics and stories to come but this is one of my favourite pics, taken just off a village shore.

going away ...

2008-06-27T23:18:00.002+10:00

Wow the days have just flown by but the time for our holiday is coming up! A totally new country with a new cuisine. Sun , sea and surf to escape the harsh Bathurst winter ... can't wait ! Only 3.5 hours flight from Sydney. Only for a week though ... back soon to report and share :) Any guesses?

The Great Southern Hotel, Berry

2008-06-18T15:15:00.007+10:00

An icon on the main street of Berry, which is also part of the Princes Highway (a 900 plus km long highway joining Sydney to Melbourne) lies the Great Southern Hotel.

Both outside and in, the decor is wildly eclectic yet seems to harmonise and give it alot of character. Homage is paid alot to signs. The signpost has distances which vary from "Donut van 0.5 km" to "Melbourne 710 kms" to Grand Canyon 12,363 kms" ... Just in case you were lost. There are also a few boats mounted on the roof and a wall of hubcaps decorate the outside wall of the bottle shop (not in picture).

Inside, the main pub area has a chandelier made out of an old wagon wheel, a modern heater sits atop of an old fuel stove in the corner, a special bar seat is made out of an old saddle. There are lots of interesting things to look at.

A warning to all bears who dare enter ...
.. you might end up on the ceiling!

A trophy bucks head ... just nicely positioned over the video arcade game "Deer Hunter" to give you some incentive.

The main bistro area with polished log tables.

We decided on eating here on Sunday night after a day further south in the town of Huskisson. Ironically, Berry had a few more places open to eat in than a larger town on the way back. After checking out a few places and their menus, we decided on good ol' fashioned pub grub.

The menu was short but had lots of classics like beer battered fish and chips, caesar salad, steak, quiche and salad etc. We started with a plate of cajun spiced wedges to share ($8.80) as greasy potatoes were needed to settle our stomachs (will explain more in the next post).
Wedges are something I have grown to love since living in Australia. Similar in size to a US favourite, potato skins which I was more familiar with, they taste nothing like potato skins. They are fully peeled potatoes and cut into wedges, coated with a spicy coating and deep fried. Wonderful on their own especially when freshly cooked and crispy on the outside and mealy on the inside. However, some genius somewhere started dipping them first in sour cream and then in sweet chilli sauce! This craze has spread in the last 12 years and most bistros and take aways will serve them with these condiments either on top or on the side. Sometimes you do have to request and pay extra for them.

The combination of hot crispy, slightly salty wedges dipped in cool sour cream and then doused in the slightly sweet, sticky chilli sauce is a taste and textural sensation that is extremely addictive.

I had the chicken caesar salad ($13.50). No complaints here ... just the right amount of dressing, bacon, croutons and nice warm tender chicken.

Hubby ordered the quiche lorraine ($13) which came with a side of the nicest, crunchiest beer battered fries we have had in a long while. It makes me wonder how nice their beer battered fish would be. The quiche itself had a pastry which I found a bit greasy and heavy but my hubby said he had no problems with it. The filling was nice and cheesy and bacon-y.

Ahh ... Aussie pub grub. The fail-safe comfort food option especially on a cold winters night.

The Seahaven Cafe, Gerroa

2008-06-14T22:24:00.007+10:00

Last weekend was the Queens Birthday holiday. Australians love long weekends and fortunately this public holiday was on a Monday, hence I could escape after work on Saturday and have 2 nights at our destination. We took the opportunity to escape to an area of NSW we have holidayed twice before and really loved it. This time was no exception. The area has lush green hills facing the ocean and the highway down is somewhere in between which makes for a lovely drive. All the towns in this area, known as the Illawara coast, are about 30 kms apart and strung along joined by the highway.

This cafe we re-visited on the Monday. (Will probably be doing my posts in a reverse order.) There was a 15% public holiday surcharge which is now rampant due to the increased cost of living. It has been noticed as well in NSW to have a 10% sunday surcharge at most places *ouch*! Anyway, while on holiday, I guess we don't have a choice but to eat out and we really enjoyed our meal here the last time.It is located in the sleepy little town of Gerroa (pop 476) and has just the one post office and general store and this 'lil cafe. (Grr my faststone photo resizer chucked a spaz again and so my photos have a "sample" watermark on them! :P Its late and I am too lazy to re-do them though.)

The Seahave Cafe has a lovely view of an inlet just adjacent to the beach.

We had lunch last time we were here so we decided to have breakfast this time. It has a page long menu with all the usual suspects. My hubby had one of them - the big brekkie. An Egg, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, grilled tomato on thick cut buttered toast ($14.50) While hearty and well cooked, nothing special.
I love ordering unusual stuff so my eyes zoomed in on the "Mexican eggs"($14.50). Poached eggs on a spicy chorizo and tomato sauce served with turkish bread, it touted on the menu. It was either that or the vegetarian breakfast which would have been like the big breakfast only spinach and and extra egg to subsitute for the meat items on there.

Anyone expecting Huevos Rancheros would have been dissapointed. However, the taste of the chorizo and tomato mixture was very very good. It went well with the egg which was able to be all mopped up by the bread. I guess this dish is very much an example of the modern Australian "fusion" type dishes. I do like sauteed spinach so I ordered it as a side ($2.50)
A very decent cafe for the area. We would probably visit again since it is just a stone's throw from the beach which as you can see from the footprints is adored by humans and animals of all shapes and sizes. Pity it was a cloudy winters day ... Seven mile beach is gorgeous and seems to stretch on forever.
After a lovely digestive walk, we headed on home with a few little stops along the way.

Seahaven Café
19 Riverleigh Ave
Gerroa
ph 4234 3796

Beetles on Darling Harbour

2008-05-31T16:00:00.005+10:00

Parents arrived last week and it was pretty busy preparing the house for visitors and then having them stay and then also going to Sydney with them for a long weekend while at the same time attending a dental symposium at Sydney's Darling Harbour.

On the first day they drove here from Sydney, they bought quite a spread from the Sydney fish markets. I just stir fried some veggies (cabbage, long beans,capsicum) in sambal chilli and used my pressure cooker to make a ginseng chicken soup in 30 minutes. They bought 4 half lobster mornay (only $12.50 each) some battered soft shell crab, seafood cakes, battered barramundi, and assorted chinese roast meats, namely duck, suckling piglet and roast pork.

Here are some pictures of Darling harbour I took while at the Convention Centre for my symposium.

Managed to coincide on the Saturday with the celebration of the 70th birthday of the Volkswagen Beetle.

Aeriel shot from the second floor where our convention was...

Being beetles, the engine is the back.
Original "breadbox" all surf and camping ready...
Trunk in the front.

Haha this ibis was found wandering the foodcourt in search of food scraps.

Night shots with my new Panasonic tz3. At times like these, really do miss Sydney and I think it has one of the prettiest harbours in the world.

Lebanese sweets!

2008-05-18T01:10:00.006+10:00

A recent flying trip to sydney to celebrate Mothers' Day with Richard's mum in Sydney only meant one thing ... food! Err I mean quality time with the in-laws *whistle*. We took MIL out to a thai restaurant near their home (they dislike venturing further than 2 suburbs away) for a Mothers day lunch. I was too embarrassed to snap photos but it was quite a nice place and we will probably be back.

On Saturday night, we had dinner on the way down (post to come soon). But on the way home on Sunday, I suggested to Richard that we try a lebanese sweet shop I had read about in the Good ~~Living~~ Eating section of Tuesdays' Sydney Morning Herald. You can read the review here.

When you first enter, the sights and smells and decor really tantaslise your senses. There is very modern decor and large glass showcases of lebanese sweets to your right. It also includes a smaller section of western type cakes, petit fours and some gelato. There is an area with lounges and a TV as well which looks pretty relaxing.

We got pretty overstimulated and must have looked like deer in headlights. A waitress soon asked if we needed help and motioned for us to sit down. We didn't recognise anything on the menu but were keen to try anything new. However, we must have had to wait another full ten minutes before she came back as she got distracted by people visiting. There was only one other table of people in the cafe! We were about to stand up and leave when a guy quickly apologised and asked her to come and take our order. I must say that she was quite patient and helpful after this point.

I ordered two smaller things, one of which was this semolina based biscuit filled with a walnut and almond paste. This was extremely morish. It was chewy yet crunchy and the nut paste wasn't too sweet.

My other order was the ladies finger/arm (Zroud el sit). It is a filo pastry filled with halawet or stretched curd cheese and topped with ashta (they spelled it kashta on the menu), the marshmallowy sweet heavy cream found in many lebanese desserts.

Here is a pic of the inside ....

I would definitely have this again. The tissue thin filo was crisp yet tasty complimenting the slight saltiness of the cheese and the sweetness of the ashta. There was a squeese bottle of rose water syrup on the table for those who like it done traditionally doused with the syrup. I just put a little bit on.

Richard ordered this as he thought it was interesting looking. We forgot what it was called. It was a pisachio overload (whos complaining?) with pistachios sandwiched between semolina and topped with loads of ashta which is topped with fresh pistachios. I personally find there is something in ashta that tastes a bit strange to me so I can only have a little of it at a time. Richard seemed to really like it and he finished the whole square which was larger than our digital camera.

My order of lebanese coffee .... I had it black and it came with authentic sludge down the bottom.

We were so impressed with what we had that of course we had to have take away. These shortbread type biscuits known as mammoul(cookies for any Yankee readers) were filled with date pastes or nut pastes and yes 5 days later they are definitely all gone. A real bargain at $22/kg these 4 biscuits were only about $3. A bite of these sent me to heaven ... smooth date pastes inside crumbly tasty nutty shortbread.

We are still working our way through these baklava. All are extremely fresh with just the right amount of butter and syrup in the pastries. Extremely reasonable, all of this including the takeaways and a cappuccino that Richard had which wasn't pictured .... $26.50 ! We are already planning our return.

El Sweetie
73-75 South Street, Granville, 9760 2299 Mon-Thu and Sun 7am-midnight, Fri-Sat 7-1am

P/S for all fans of lebanese food, I found a fantastic site with recipes! It is aptly titled an Introduction to lebanese cuisine

Hubby's birthday celebration @ the Treehouse Restaurant.

2008-05-05T23:08:00.008+10:00

Its late but this was Hubby's birthday "cake" bought from la cachette (270 Mitchell Rd Alexandria) in Sydney. Unfortunately I had to be away most of the day to learn from and observe an IV specialist dentist in Sydney but I made it home with takeaway and this yummy berry tart. Also including pics from our dinner which I will elaborate on soon.

This tart was extremely morish with a nice buttery shortcrust pastry, chockful of berries and a nice almond filling which wasn't too sweet and complimented the berries nicely. The cafe deserves another visit as it had lots of interesting cakes, tarts and gourmet deli meals such as fritatas, savoury pies and rolls.

Anyway, this restaurant, The Treehouse used to be in a different location, slightly out of town. We went there for the first time a few days after moving to Bathurst in 2006. Hubby thought it was a cafe since a flyer advertising lunch and dinners had been stuck to his windscreen at school. So, we went in our sunday best ... NOT! He was in his paint smeared old working jeans and t-shirt with holes in it and I was in my largest most comfortable tracksuit.

We were greeted with a smile by the waitress and seated off to the side in a front room. It was when we opened the menus and saw that the entrees were about $16, mains $29 and desserts $12 that we realised it was a classy modern Australian restaurant by night! It was like the movies when the world comes tumbling in and you feel like the walls are narrowing and wish the ground would swallow you up. We looked around and saw everyone was in evening attire with dresses and shirts and ties. It was too late to walk out then! We ordered two main courses which we loved and have been back on a regular basis since.

The maitre d' Dannii whom we later found out was her name always has a friendly smile for us and we have gotten to know the chef Michael who is from Eastern Europe. He mostly comes out from the kitchen for a chat to us. He knows that this is my favourite dish. I always order it .... the Treehouse antipasto platter as a starter $16.
For the person who can't make up her mind ... a little bit of everything - a sample of some of the other entrees. It changes a little everytime. Today it has (clockwise) olives in the small pot, pork terrine with chutney, a mound of smoke eggplant, smoked salmon terrine served with beetroot relish, roasted cherry tomatoes, a bit of fresh tabouli and on top a small mound of salad with balsamic dressing and proscuitto wrapped around asparagus. It is served with some char-grilled turkish bread.

My DH had the eggplant wrapped around cous cous with ricotta baked parcel. It is served with a tasty tomato reduction and balsamic dressing.
Richard's main $29... the roast duck with walnut and mushroom tart. It is served with sauteed spinach. A firm favourite of ours, the duck is always tasty and the sauce is a duck jus with a hint of walnuts. The tart itself is superb with melt in the mouth puff pastry, the mushrooms and walnut melding together, each having absorbed the other's flavours.
My main- the basil mousse stuffed chicken breast served with lentils. Sadly the chicken breast was a little dry and the mousse although tasty was also on the dry side and more like a stuffing than a mousse. The lentils I could have had double serving of and left the chicken alone! It was melt in the mouth and buttery with rich tomato flavours. It was also served with sauteed spinach.
We were much too full for dessert. We found what works for us is to share a starter, each have a main course and share a dessert but we each had a starter today, hence we just had coffees after. I ordered an irish coffee and Richard a cappuccino. We got them complimentary because they had no cream for the irish coffee and hence made it just putting some froth on top. Dannii knew we wouldn't mind ....

after all ... we did first start our custom on a very casual note! :)

The Treehouse Restaurant
Dinner Mon- Sat
Country Comfort Bathurst
Cnr Brilliant and Stewart St Bathurst
(02) 6331 1800

A day in Orange

2008-04-26T21:22:00.006+10:00

While I was hard at work two Saturdays ago, Richard went with Casey and Clare (from Eatstuff) to the Orange Farmers Markets. These are on once a month but this time it was in conjunction with Orange Food Week hence they made an effort to check it out. Orange is a country town about the same size as Bathurst and is 60 kms away. While I was beavering away at drilling and filling, Richard used the camera to capture sights I missed.

Lady with assorted produce

A local belly dancing club for entertainment

Even a pet treat stall!

I joined them after work and they had already covered some ground having visited two wineries before that. We had a bit of a quick lunch and headed to Indigo Ridge Winery. This had a few sculptures in the vineyard to contemplate while tasting their wine. None of the wines there grabbed us but C & C bought a bottle of their unique Sparkling Sav Blanc.

This is a photo taken from Phillip Shaw Winery which I missed out on but Richard bought a bottle of his No. 8 Pinot Noir. At $40 a pop, I hope its something special!

As the sun set (yes daylight savings has come to an end) we hurried to our booked event, the walk, talk and taste tour at Cargo Road Wines.

This was a fantastic tour of the vineyard done personally by one of the owners, James Sweetapple (ironic last name for a vigneron?). We started out with him showing us a map of the property and explaining the different grape varieties grown on it.

He went through measuring the sugar content of the grapes with a cool device that looks a bit like a thermometer and bobs up and down in the liquid. It is roughly equal density of sugar to final alcohol percentage of the wine at the end.

Next, testing the pH to see it is right.

He poured from the beacon of crushed grape juice for us to taste. Anyone who has told you that wine making grapes don't taste nice is leading you up the garden path! The juice (this particular variety was Zinfandel) was full bodied, extremely sweet and had a lot more dimension and depth than regular dark grape juice. It made you want to zip around the place in a sugar high.

Next we walked around the winery inspecting the different grapes. He showed us how different varieties had different shaped leaves and the vines grew slightly differently. Some were more bushel-ly than others tending to willow over and grow too long to cover up their own stalks and these had to have regular haircuts to ensure adequate ventilation for the main trunks. We got to taste the different grapes as well as James went through the science of how different mulches could be used to give the plans various nutrients. I never knew wine making was such a science! And that so much happened in the grape end as much as the pressing and fermentation.

Back at the winery, we got to taste the end result. We started out with the Riesling, went on to the Savignon Blanc, Gurwurztraminer, two years of the zinfandel, two vintages of Cab Sav, their rose called the primitivo love and finally the dessert Zinfandel. All of them were exceptionally good quality and we were blown away by the taste of the rose which was very fruity. James's passion certainly carries through into the wine and you can tell they were made with a lot of care and quality control.

More about the pressing and fermentation of the different wines red and white was explained here. We were invited to sniff the difference between the French and American Oak barrels. Yes that is a coffee cup squashed into Richard's back pocket.

We really enjoyed the tour and tasting. At $12 per head, we highly recommend it to anyone. It was an eye opening experience to know more about the process. I don't think I will look at a glass of wine the same again!

We had dinner at a pub in town. It had great steaks that you could choose to cook yourself over an open grill or for them to cook it for you. I didn't get a photo of the others' meals but this was mine, a New York cut that I grilled myself to about medium-rare with a large helping of salad from the salad bar. There were about 8 different types of salad. I picked a nice rocket, red onion one, a bean one and some coleslaw. It also came with a par-baked potato I tossed on the grill and some mustard butter on the side. ($19) it was nice aged steak and very tender. Cooking it myself meant I got my meal sooner than the rest :P lol Faststone chucked a spaz so the watermark is saying this is a sample steak.

Our combined haul for the day ...

Lots of fresh fruit, bags of hazelnuts, prunes, wines , wines and more wines!

I'm Back?

2008-04-19T18:48:00.002+10:00

Wow its been so long since I last posted. About 13 months ago! So much has happened since then including having our rented home sold and only given a short period of time to find a new place, deciding to buy a place, buying a old place that needed renovations and knowing nothing about them, doing some renovations, still having ongoing renovations until today when lots of people from work came over for a working bee in the front garden! I was really touched that they did that. Gardening is scary for me who lived in Singapore with only a few potted plants on the balcony.

Also since the last post, I completed my Graduate Diploma in Conscious Sedation in December, went back to Singapore in January with a mini break to Hong Kong. Work has also been pretty busy since then with the weeks flying by.

Anyway, hope to get posting more including food places around Bathurst and my pilgrimage to Tetsuya's some months ago but still fresh in the memory! Bought Hubby an espresso machine (Breville 800ES)which we will be playing with, especially since he went on a home barista course. We also went on an eye opening vineyard tour last week as part of Orange food week. Where we were educated on how wine is made, from grape to wine and tasting several different varieties.

Net problems

2006-11-03T12:42:00.000+11:00

Just a quick scribble from work. We are having net probs at home due to a defective phone line, hence no posts recently. It is not handled very efficiently by Telstra whome we fear are going to be even more inefficient once it is 100% privatised. I just hope it comes back soon!!! We have to re-boot our modem anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes and then it is active for a while and then dies again. bleah.

Other interesting tidbits...

2006-10-22T16:12:00.000+10:00

Ah well back at home now, only to leave again in a couple of hours. This time not to Sydney though, but to Cowra doing a one week locum for my ex-employers. I really enjoyed my week doing the OT round in Westmead Hospital. The whole anaesthesia department there worked quite well as a team and they seem to have quite a few socials such as a trathlon and a fancy dress ball coming up. Its good to see they can also have fun together. Every morning, they get some loaves of bread in the tea room and there is always an endless supply of those little packs of jam, peanutbutter, honey and butter or margerine. I know that the dental departments don't get treated as well !! They even have cordial as an alternative to tea and coffee :P

During the last few days, I saw some other interesting things such as a caesarean delivery ... you could tell when the gynae cut through the uterus because water suddenly went everywhere! The patient had told us before she went under that this was baby no 4 so she had also requested for the surgeon to tie her tubes after the caesarean. Thus the baby was all cleaned up and put in his little crib and checked out by the paediatrician and mum was still asleep. The crib had a cool incubator heater thing over the top like a little shelter, but they didn't have to turn it on as he was quite healthy and pink. I had never seen a live delivery before ... really interesting to see something so new in this world.

I also saw the last bit of a leg amputation, a toe amputation (mostly diabetic patients), and I even had a day in the emergency OT where a guy on a motorbike had had a match with a truck and lost. He had a broken tibia (front bone in the calf) and a nail wedged between the two bones in there. When he met the surgeon he said "Your job is like mine ... you are like fitters and turners I've seen your instruments!" The surgeon just smiled ... I haven't seen what fitters and turners do but there was quite a racket trying to push the bone back in place without doing open surgery. Nowadays, just cutting a small opening and putting different tools in to move the bones or vessels is the norm rather than opening up the length of leg similar to the length of broken bone and setting it and sewing it all up again.

Another guy they brought in was eating an ice cream and driving on a freeway when he rammed up into the back of another car and had gotten caught under the dashboard. Not sure what happenned to the ice cream but he was a concern for doctors because he was very much overweight. This is a particular concern as drug dosages may need to be higher than advised just to get him asleep and that is a problem for his liver and kidneys. Also, they are concerned as the respirator machine also has to crank more gas in there to blow up his chest as his lungs are under quite a bit of weight. It was one case where I did not even want to try intubating and let the professionals do it instead.

Also heard .. patient to anaesthetist," Can you do me a favour? When I am under, can you watch where they put the leg tourniquet before they operate? Last time they caught my scrotum by accident. I couldn't move for 3 days and my balls went blue black!!"

I look forward to my next round of OTs which will be in March '07 and so will the sedation clinics. Meanwhile, back to normal drilling and filling. Will be looking forward to going back to Cowra and meeing up with friends again. Not sure what my net access will be like while there so I think the earliest I will be blogging again will be in a weeks time.

OR rounds...

2006-10-17T13:50:00.000+10:00

Blogging live from the hospital library so no pics. Am doing a OR round or rather known as OT for operating theatres here in Aust. I'm attached to an Anaesthetist everyday and will be learning about maintaining an airway, even if the patient is unconcious. As well as the different levels of sedation and also getting a bit of cannulation in.

Yesterday was a good day. It really reminded me of hospital shows like my favourite at the moment, Greys Anatomy. I don't really know why I like it since there are so many things wrong I can pick with the occupational health and safety side of things. They would never, ever let anyone into the operating theatre with loose hair or even without a surgical cap on. Yet the main character moseys around the set with hair half in her eyes and flipping it here and there just because it makes her look pretty. Also, maybe someone from the US can also tell me why they let people walk around outside the street as well as in the dining room in their scrubs !! The main idea of scrubs is that they have no germs or coffee spills etc from outside that could contaminate the theatre. We have a zone that you have to get changed out of outside clothes into the blue scrubs plus big socks over your shoes and a sexy hair cap that makes you look like the canteen lady. Surgeons get to wear the ones that look more like the ones on TV ... but thats coz they are surgeons.... you gotta have some incentives.

Anyway, I got to peruse the whiteboard type thing just like on TV and see which room I was assigned to and away I went. Morning was a few small surgeries to free vessels so dialysis patients can have a better blood flow to some areas. Afternoon, I got the Anaesthetics Professor who beelives the only way to learn is to be totally free of aids such as the tubes so I had to hold the gas mask over the patient's mouth and nose manually for 6 operations for which a urologists stuck a very long steel tube up people's hoo hoos to check any cysts in their bladders. I am so glad I was not on the other end of the table. Its gotta be bad when there are stirrups.

Anyway, the registrar (or intern for you yanks) took pity on me and was giving me helpful hints like "The surgeon is going to stick the long steel tube up now so you want to make sure you have a very good complete seal around the mask so the patient doesn't wake up when he stick it in." Gee thanks. I never knew holding a mask down and holding a persons jaw up to have a clear airway could be so tiring. Some people's heads are really heavy!!! I got a good nod of approval at the end of the day though as the machine had good readings of oxygen saturations, and the patients were all comfortable at the end of the day. *phew*

Today it was the type of sedation I was more likely to do, which is using drugs IV to just send them sleepy but not unconscious. It was in a totally different department to what I am used to though .... colonoscopies. Still, I am impressed that the drugs were enough to make them not mind a metre tube being shoved up where the sun don't shine. I have never seem the inside of someones mouth and gut all the way to the other side before. Its enough to make me glad I am working on the end I am working on. I asked a gastroenterologist ..."whats that yellow stuff stuck to the walls?" "oh thats just poo" ooookay.... sorry I asked. It was neat how the camera could swing around and a little clippy thing could take some small samples from strange looking lumps in the walls. They were mostly looking for sources of bleeding though.

Well, back to the OTs now ... will write if have more interesting things to report on. Sorry no piccies. I am sure most of you out there will be glad not to see them though.

Assignments !!!

2006-09-24T18:32:00.000+10:00

Ack same old problem of "should have started earlier" now I have to churn out 2 x 2000 word and 1 x 5000 word essay by 1st october. Glad that it can be emailed so I will probably send it at 11:59 am on the 1st ;) I have started but I can say that it is much harder than pulling teeth. Which by the way is an incorrect expression as teeth aren't really pulled out. They are elevated and the periosteal bone around it is stretched and the socket expanded before the tooth is finally extracted. But I digress...

We just spent a nice little break in the Blue Mountains which are the mountain ranges dividing the eastern seaboard from the country plains in New South Wales. It is full of little quaint towns with cute shops and cafes. We stayed at a historic hotel, the Hydro Majestic which was completed in 1904. It is rich with olde world charm and has been decorated with furniture reminiscent of that era. Will post pics of that too and the great food at a wonderful restaurant with similar fare to a restaurant dear to our stomachs,Neila. This restaurant, Ashcrofts was recently awarded a chefs had by the SMH good food guide (Sydney version of New York's Zagats) and the food was definitely not over-rated either. But more on that too after I finish the shanghai backlog (!)

Oh well back to my assignment now ... *sigh*

The wierd and whacky in Shanghai

2006-09-11T23:05:00.000+10:00

Been pretty busy with friends coming to visit from Cowra as well as being invited to a girl from work's place for dinner. Both were lots of fun, however, our social calander is booked up all weekends bar one from now until my next prac in the middle of October! I had anothre glance at when my assignments were due and it is the 1st of October so, I really need to juggle my time well from now till then. It is wierd having assignment stress all over again. Its been a while now since my last assignment, a bit nervous about handling it and completing it. Its amazing what working full time does to you - I suspect it kills brain cells!

I was going to do chronological posts about Shanghai but I decided I will divide it into topics: wierd or different things, food, day and night scenes. I unfortunately only really had 2 out of the 4 days to explore. Alas on the second night, a terrible tummy bug got hold of me and I got the works. This included fever, cough and cold and the usual dehydration from both ends. Needless to say, I am now a bit wary about going back there. At least I had 2 days to have a good look around!

The following two pictures are from a shelf in a shop selling typical shanghai delicacies. It was located in their tourist tower (you know what I mean, alot of cities have one) called the Bright pearl of Asia (literally translated).

Amongst other things which were "normal" for me such as dried or fried marinated fish and shrimp, various candied or dried fruits etc. lay these interesting snacks. The yellow bulbs on the left are actually stewed garlic and the brown things onthe right are marinated, roasted duck tongues. All hygenically packed ... of course. I decided that those were a bit too strange as snack foods and besides, I had to buy the whole packet, what if I really disliked it?? Hence I gave these a miss.

Over on this shelf was salted chicken gizzards (the strange brown things) on the left and dried fish on the right. I happen to have had gizzards in the past and didn't mind them too much as they were in a soup. Hence, I bought a package of individualy wrapped ones to share with my sister. How were they? Pretty salty but a nice crunchy texture. Anyone who has had kidney in steak and kidney pie will know what I mean by crunchy. Not bad ... just that probably having two might blow your daily sodium intake.

Another interesting thing about Shanghai was these literally hole-in-the-wall places selling various cooked snacks such as fried bread, dough sticks, dumplings etc. The following picture is quite a large "shop" compared to some I saw which had a hole in the wall the size of some large computer monitors! Yet there was someone on the other side of the window and a small sign advertising their wares, mostly food or drink.

We passed this market in the tour bus on the first day, onthe way to our hotel. It was about 7 am in the morning and the street was milling with people. It was definitely a shared zone with people, cars, buses, bicycles, scooters and people all trying to get to where they wanted and all in different directions. People were buying their groceries for the day and this included vegetables, fruit and meat/seafood. If you look closely at the bottom right corner of the screen, you can see a small tank full of eels. These were live but were killed fresh on the spot when you purchased them.

Does this look familiar to you? Yes! It is gyros (yeeros) or kebab meat going around on a small spit, just in the middle of the street. The price is low like most food in shanghai - 3 RMB/yuan for a pita pocket, 4 for a burger or 5 for a large wrap bread. And 10 RMB for a large box of meat. This equates to $0.60 AUD for the pita pocket !!! Those grimacing about the hygiene should have thier gut feeling confirmed, around the corner was a guy squatting by a drain and sharpening the kebab knife in it!! *bleah*

No I definitely did not eat questionable food and ate at pretty high standard restaurants, yet I got a tummy bug. The rest of my family were ok but I guess it just takes one different order to get hit big time! Anyway, next post will show a bit more about shanghainese cuisine.