Samwon Gardens

Samwon Gardens

I have not done a food blog in a few months, its not that i haven't gone to new places its just been hard to find time to upload them. The other night we went to a Korean restaurant and it was hidden in a strip of Greek restaurants . It had a mixture of Japanese and Korean dishes but we decided to eat there anyway.

We ordered the Korean dishes because on many occasions when you order dishes from other cultures it can be disappointing. When ordering we always have favourites to try and these are them.

Tteokbokki  is sweet chili dish using vegetables and soft rice cake. Is never is super hot but always juicy and tasty.

Jap Chae is made of sweet potato noodles with vegetalable and either beef or chicken but we always go beef. Its a fun dish to eat with all the noodles as they stick together and it makes it harder to pick up.

Bibbimbap  is a mixed rice dish and normally you get it a ceramic type bowl and the rice gets very crispy. You get a chili sauce to mix in. It  has sliced vegies and a cooked egg on top. You wait a while for the rice to crisp up then add the chili sauce and mix it altogether.

Spicy fried chicken we decided to order the sweet chili chicken and it was deep fried chicken with an amazing sweet chili sauce. The chicken was very tender and juicy. It was not overcooked but just amazing and we will come back for this dish.

For a random Korean restaurant we really enjoyed it and will be back.
Kind E-gards
Dale Stewart

Lifestyle changes

Lifestyle changes

Since little Iris was born nearly 2 months ago and everything changes completely, until you have one you never really comprehend how much it does. You automatically add an extra hour to go out somewhere and no matter what you do they suddenly either have a poonami or have to eat just before you walk out the door so you are late anyway. We have been taking her out to cafe's and restuarants and when you decide which one you need to find out if A) it has change tables and B) it has change tables in a unisex bathroom or in the male bathroom. If not you end up changing her nappy in the boot of the car or on a bench.It is funny how people stare at you when you do it but when you have an unhappy baby you will do what you have to make them happy. All shopping centres have parents rooms so it makes it easier and some of them are beautiful with microwaves and kettles . We can tell she is getting heavier but also sleeping better, for the first 7 weeks she was waking up at 3am for a feed but now se goes to bed at 11:30pm but wakes up at either 6:30 am or 7:30 am.  It is crazy how every day they change slightly or make new sounds. We have had a lot of friends have babies and we have watched them grow up and we see what we like and dislike.  I can't believe how fast time goes now and how lucky we are to have this little gem in our life. My wife has nearly finished writing what happened so that should be up soon.

Just a quick update.
Kind E-gards
Dale

Iris Nolidin Stewart

Iris Nolidin Stewart 

I know it has been over a month since my last blog and that I have also mentioned in my last few blog's on and off that I would have news. Kim and I are now parents and I wanted to mention it earlier on but I was worried that if anything happened I would have hated myself. She is beautiful but I know all parents say that, but being Eurasian gives her that different look. The last few weeks have absolutely crazy and I have never had such an emotional ride in my life. I don't know if it is lack of sleep or work just being so busy I don't know where my days have gone. Its amazing you get told sleep when they sleep and I have never had so many Nanna Naps in my life. As i try to find time to edit more photos and you realise how quickly they grow. She is now 4.5kg and loves her food.

We have already taken her cafe's and restaurants and also Ikea and she loves the car thank goodness.  We look forward to a whole lot of adventures and random shinanigans.
Thanks For having a read.
Kind E-gards
Dale Stewart

Fab Food and Great Friends

Fab Food and great friend's

Before the new chapter begins in our life we have been trying to save as much as we can but also catch up with all our friends as the next few months will be hectic. Its not long before our little Burrito enters the world and we need to care for her, but that's part of Kim's story.
 Last month our friends took us out for dinner for Kim's Birthday and we went to a beautiful restaurant called Rosetta. Its an Italian restaurant in the city and it was amazing, I have never had chips and crab that tastes so fab.

 

 

We have not done Fine Dining since Narisawa last august and it was great to do it again. The deserts are fantastic We had the chocolate, peanut and coconut semi-freddo. I would go back for potato and the desserts.
   
That following Sunday we did YumCha with a group of close friends. We have been to about 10 different YumCha places and this one is my favourite as it does the chicken feet so well. Its called Crown palace. The chicken feet have so much flavor. It has a variety of dishes and they are always hot. We also ordered the crispy crab claw balls and they are superb, tender and juicy. If you like Tofu fa you should go to the early session as it had sold out by the second session.

 

 

 

Have you had chicken feet?
Kind E-gards
Dale

Life In The Fast Lane

Life In The Fast Lane

I have been at my job now for just over two months and it has been crazy, at my last job I had a couple of hours a day to do what I want. I would be able to do Youtube, Ebay and blog but now I have not much time even though I spend less time traveling I have struggled to find time to do this blog. Over the last few weekends we have been renovating again and replacing furniture to make the house look less cluttered. We have been looking for a T.V Unit for nearly 2 years and we finally found the right one. We got the unit from Holy Funk Furniture in Moorabbin. I also added an I.r Extender so I can turn the amp on and off with out opening the sliding doors.

 I hated the wall mount that the other T.V was so I replaced it with a $20 bracket that sits a few centimeters off the wall.

Last weekend we installed adjustable shelves into a  cupboard and readjusted the rail because whoever built it was a Muppet and it gives us more flexibility with storage.

I hated my modem sitting out in the open so I got a Cube frame and ran all my cables up the wall and into the cube. We need to print a picture off  to cover the front but it will look good when completed but we have not had time to print off the pic so hopefully we will do that in the next few days.

Those who know me know that I love doing Latte art but I have upgraded my coffee machine and sad to say no more art but I got my new machine at an amazing price and could not refuse it. The coffee is pretty close to a fully manual machine but makes coffee from start to finish in 60 seconds.

I hope the terrible weather passes so we can go take photos, until then we have two more cupboards to fix and a lot of painting.
What do you think?
Kind E-gards
Dale

Random Photos

Random Photos

Over the Christmas break we did a few random things and I took a bunch of photos, I have finally finished editing them.

We had Kim's Christmas party at the Melbourne Aquarium and it was drinks and canapés. We had to pay for me and I was disappointed. It was amazing having all the fish around for a party. It was so dark and I struggled to get many great photos but this is my favourite one. 

I have always wanted to do a Shitmas party and we finally got around to doing it. You know when you have Christmas and someone always gets something and they go but why??? This was the whole purpose of this party. Each person brought a gift to the value of $12 ($12 for 12 days of Christmas).

Everyone put the presents on the Shitmas tree, then we pulled out a number from Viking hat.

We opened the gifts from the highest number to the lowest number.

Gifts included a jar of Nutella with a random name on it, bar of bacon soap, kite, bad taxidermy book, random lantern. For dinner we cooked beer butt chicken.

First take some cans of beer and you get to drink half. We had a pale ale, lager, stout and a ginger beer. Shove it in the chickens butt. Put some olive oil mixed with garlic and herbs on the outside 

You put it in the b.b.q for about an hour at 130 degrees. We had potato's wrapped in foil with some oil, garlic and some with curry powder in as well. The chicken is so moist and tender.

 Its now the only way I will cook a chicken as its fun and easy to do.

 We went to Fairhaven to go body boarding, the waves were just perfect so we spent the most of the day there. It was so quiet and for a 43 degree day it was fabulous but I did get a bit sunburnt.

Just a couple of pics, have you ever cooked a chicken like that?

thanks for reading.

Kind E-gards

Dale