It’s Sunday evening and I’m back in Rushworth after another glorious weekend in Melbourne and the meandering bus trip home (the Vline bus ride deserves its own post)
The mark of a top notch weekend?
Bags under the eyes over a tasty Sunday lunch of course.
(tastiness courtesy of Blue Chillies on Brunswick St – Roti w Curry….mmmm)
I went to Ikea with Jess and Beck the other day. I didn’t need any furniture but I did need odd food from the Swedish grocer. I bought some biscuits and caviar in a tube, but my favourite purchase for the day was:
Swedish Rye Bread in a carton.
Following the instructions I:
…and voila!
It was a bit stinky when it first came out of the oven, but was pretty tasty. Over the next day or so it got even tastier until it was positively delicious!
Categories: 1
Tagged: bread, Food, swedish rye bread in a carton
Today my office colleagues bid me farewell with lunch at my favourite river restaurant, Kin Lom Chom Saphan (which translates to Eat Breeze View Bridge…Keep reading and you will see why).
Flaminia keeps it real
Ting Ting, Flaminia, Me and Ju
Modelling for photos before the food arrives
Don't you wish you'd thought of that?!
Then the food arrived...
...and we never looked back
Delicious fish
Half the team
The other half (and the brilliant Hannah in the bottom right corner)
Bringing down the house with a speech
Two thirds of my programme team, Anya and Sarah
Eat Breeze View Bridge
I mentioned briefly on Monday that I was starting a week-long detox regime with my colleague Flaminia. It’s a really mild detox because we still need to function in the office. Well, let me tell you, Flaminia has broken about 50 rules already! Turns out it’s hard to tell an Italian not to drink coffee.
I, on the other hand, have been (almost not really) faultless – until today when there was delicious Northern Thai Curry in the canteen. I think it was made entirely of food on the “must not consume” list.
Here’s the detox paradox. I’m beginning to feel pretty all right, but yesterday I could have killed an innocent bystander. I mean, how creepy is that! I just cut out a few things that I don’t think I eat much of anyway, and I go a bit crazy! And what’s even more twisted is that I suffered through yesterday only to erase the hard-won benefits with curry.
You know what I think, I think this “I don’t eat much of it anyway” idea is a falsehood. I think I (and maybe we all) overestimate the amount of junk I can ply my body with. There will always be someone (or in my case an entire office full of people) who is eating loads of crappy fake food, and always someone who’s drinking five cups of coffee a day, so you think, “I don’t come close to consuming what that person does, so I’m doing OK.”
It’s amazing how often, when someone offers me a coffee and I decline, it’s followed up with, “but one or two cups a day is OK.” Like it’s medical fact. Here’s the fact, all bodies are different, with different capacity to consume, and I use my tiny Thai colleagues as proof that size might count in this equation, but it’s not everything. These girls can eat.
If I can’t go a couple of days eating mostly vegetables without feeling like a pile of crap then something is not OK. But then, that’s considered standard process in a detox, Step 1: stop eating crap; Step 2: Collapse into a heap for a few days and pray that you’ll come out the other end.
Am I expecting too much? Is it just part of the deal that a normal diet contains some stuff that isn’t ideal? But wait, this is withdrawal symptoms! That’s not cool!
I think we should start “detoxing” not just to feel better after a week, but to remind ourselves of the evils of the food we think is fine. Imagine how much worse it would be after Christmas or some other period where you “relax and enjoy” without measure.
In my short trip back to Australia I was able to squeeze in a trip to Rushworth (in between my busy sleep schedule). Here are some photos:
1. One of the most compelling reasons to squeeze in a trip to Rushworth
Kitchen fire
2. On Saturday MJ, Benj and I did some burning off. Here we pitted the barrel against the pile-of-stuff-bonfire. Both have their strengths: the barrel is more efficient, but the bonfire can handle some of the larger or more unweildy items.
Burning stuff
3. It turned into night very quickly
Burning stuff, then it gets dark
4.On Sunday the girls came to Rushworth and Em took me for a spin on this monster
Emily on the quadrasaur
5. We also did more burning, and cleaned out the wash house, finding little treasures like this:
Sarah's art from grade Prep. I hit the peak of my talent shortly after.
6. In the evening it was time for marshmallows
Abby toasts marshmallows
Abby eats marshmallows
7. And I made a cake! We fed it to people the next day and it got rave reviews. But then when I told them I made it from a packet (obvs) I got chastised! What!? Since when are packets evil? Without them there would probably be 90% less cake in the world.
I made lemon cake!
Categories: 1
Tagged: Australia, Family, Food, kids, Rushworth
Holidays start later today! I’m at work with my very heavy suitcase and I’m charging up the pod readying myself for departure. SO excited about this trip! I woke up at 5.30am I was so excited!
Last night, instead of working until a-million-o’clock or devoting unnecessary amounts of time to packing, the lovely Khun Rae invited me and some colleagues over for REAL INDIAN FOOD! This invitation came about because intern Sara and I eat Indian food at the canteen most days. One day at lunch we were speculating about where to get the best Indian food in Bangkok so we asked Khun Rae, who is about 15 generations Thai-Indian. Her answer: “My house!” So we set a date for dinner.
Khun Rae lives far away from the office. The other day it took her FOUR HOURS to get to work! But last night, with Nut’s car and the traffic on our side we were there in 45 mins! Bangkok, you make no sense sometimes.
Khun Rae knew what we were all about, so there was food on the table almost as soon as we arrived.
Close up please…
Augggghhhhhhhhhhhhh, the appetizers were so damn tasty. I forget what the first dish was called but I think it’s my favourite food in the world. Seriously! The second dish, Samosas. Home made. You’re jealous.
And this is what my plate looked like a short time later! Hellooooo deliciousness. Yes, I ate too much, and yes my table manners could have been better – but the other guests were similarly afflicted with food lust so it was OK. Best moment of the night: Nut sees a delicious dish and starts loading up his plate: “Ohhhhhhhh I LOVE this!! I LOVE Indian food!”. Khun Rae: “Nut, it’s a Thai curry”.
The star of the evening was Khun Rae’s son, Ankit. This photo makes him look like a sweet and charming little boy. That’s part of his sneaky game plan. We know the truth…
Nut being tortured by Ankit. He only beat up on boys. He respectfully screamed at the girls. Cutest moment was when Khun Rae said something to Ankit in Hindi and he went from running around manic circles to dead quiet. “What did you say Rae?” “I told him that if he doesn’t behave I won’t invite people from the office ever again” Awww, he loved us!
Last Tuesday Lara and I decided to declare the State of Emergency “Over” or perhaps “not something we care about anymore” and went out for a night-before-my-birthday/Lara’s-last-night-in-town dinner. Keen to take advantage of the vertical strengths of Bangkok we went to Longtable on the 25th floor of some building over near Asok BTS.
Bangkok skyline - the view from our table
Sarah
Lara
Lobster, papay salad, fried rice and morning glory. Even more delicious than it looks!
The city of Bangkok was lit up behind us but my clever camera holding means you can't really see it.
Categories: 1
Tagged: Bangkok, Birthday, Drinks, Food, Friends, Longtable Bangkok
A regular lunch in the office
Today’s fancy conference lunch
note: this is just what I ate, and a small sample of what was on offer… helloooooo belly.
For my final post on our trip to Chiang Mai, I am going to share with you that delightful city’s greatest delight.
Gianni de Burchio Italian restaurant.
Gianni de Burchio Italian restuarant Chaing Mai
Yes, yes, temples, markets, Thai food. All part of Chiang Mai’s endless charm. But Gianni de Burchio…well.
MJ and I stumbled across this place on our first afternoon in Chiang Mai and pizza sounded pretty tasty. Oh how I underestimated Gainni de Burchio! The pizza was sensational! Maybe some of the best pizza I’ve…ever…eaten. I know, I’m as shocked writing that as you are reading it.
There are a surprising number of pizza shops in Chiang Mai, and I believe I saw two that claimed to have the best pizza in town. I wonder if it could have been better than Gianni de Burchio? I can’t tell you because when we felt like eating pizza again…we went straight back to Gianni de Burchio.
Our second lunch was quite a bit lengthier and involved much more alcohol (and very strong coffee). In the interest of full disclosure, Gianni, who runs the restaurant with his wife, plied us with booze while feeding us things like homemade ricotta and lasagne that, you guessed it, was some of the best lasagne I’ve ever eaten. No offense to the people in my life who make delicious lasagne (you know who you are), but this was….almost as good as yours!
Categories: 1
Tagged: Chiang Mai, chiang mai pizza, Food, gianni de burchio italian restaurant, italian restaurant chiang mai, Thailand
Christmas dinner by the window
Simone, Cat and I arrived at lunch to find Nicole waiting for us at an elaborately decorated table with a view. We exchange gifts (I forgot that Nicole was the gift-giving master, this part was extremely fun) and got started on the buffet. Because we were in a fancy hotel and not Smorgies there was an air of grace to our binging. When we piled food on our plates we did so with our pinkies extended.
So much food!
There was every conceivable food at this buffet so we ate and ate and ate all sorts of things, and then decided it was time to settle into the traditional Christmas dinner.
Christmas dinner
Sadly, the eating and eating and eating didn’t warm up the troops for battle, it just weakened the battle stations and we were overthrown early.
Christmas dinner wins
And then we ate dessert…
but surely there is room for a little more
We emerged from battle sometime in the afternoon and made it all the way to the hotel pool before taking a rest.
working off the meal
After an extended lounging period by the pool, we made our way back to the hotel and found Bridget Kelly wandering the streets of Hanoi. We made phone and skype calls to various families and then decided to make the most of Christmas in a non-Christian country and went shopping.
Categories: 1
Tagged: Christmas, Drink, Food, Friends, Hanoi, Vietnam
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