Tag Archive for ‘food’ at helenthura.com

Tag Archive for 'food'

Penang dua

Published

on April 23, 2013

. 1 Comment

Oh what to say and where to start. I’ve now been home for 2.5 weeks. I went to Penang with a dodgy cough and came home with a dodgy ankle. I only started wearing heels part of the day at work late last week, wearing flats for two weeks was almost as bad as the pain itself. If you told a 21 year old Helen that she would wear heels to work everyday, I would have told you were to go. I possibly hated wearing flats more so because I had picked up two new pairs of work shoes in Penang and was very much looking forward to wearing them

I tripped walking out onto the balcony. Of course I would have to fall on my dodgy ankle, my poor left ankle. That darn right ankle always gets off scot free. Jo was at work of course but as per usual she put on her “oh Helen” cap and brought me home chocolate and ice packs. Not that we didn’t have enough chocolate in the place already but … (see previous post)

Yep! A White Knight bar! Hadn’t had one of those in years. Super mint chocolate goodness.

What else did I do in Penang?

Well.

The birthday girl had a birthday and Easter. That meant more chocolate and presents.

We spent the day wandering round George Town and the shops. Nothing exciting or really interesting to report really.

Dinner though needs to be reported. There was roti! (and curry) for dinner at one of the makanans at Batu Ferringhi and then a wonder of the markets before a round of birthday mojitos at Bora Bora. Roti! (the ! is always needed at the end of roti! because one always get chipper about the prospect of a roti! overload).

Looking at my collection of photos, I’ll think I break this post here and save the touristy day that was Easter Monday for another post.

Ever since I got back, people have been asking me about all the exciting things I saw and did whilst in Penang (I didn’t visit Malaysia, I visited Penang, since I didn’t leave the island at all). My answer is that I didn’t go to Penang for a week of sightseeing and shopping but I went for a week of girlie hanging out with one of my dearest friends. This means a week of chocolate, movies, food, casing the shops, drinks and general girlie shenanigans. Sure there was a few little touristy things thrown in here and there but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Saying hello from Penang

Published

Helen

on March 31, 2013

in adventures, food and friends

. 0 Comments

The last five weeks have been fairly hectic at my new job, which is OK because I had expected it. There has been quite a few nights when I’ve sat down at the laptop and said I really must post an update or two but then it is a case of where to start again.

I’ll start here, in Penang where I am for a week visiting one of my dearest, dearest friends for her birthday. I flew out of the GC on Friday morning and about 12 hours later I was in a massive round of hugs with Jo at the Penang airport. Happy times.

Air Asia was very good to fly with and on the GC-KL plane I think I had more leg room than I have ever had before.

We went out to dinner at Song River on Friday and had a very, very nice meal. The fried rice from the gum boots man was so smokely delicious and the satay from one of the other stalls was oh so good as well. We washed our meal down with watermelon juice and that was just like drinking summer.

Then it was back to the apartment to natter about the last 3.5 months and for me to get mothered, “now that you’ve finished your Lemsip you can go to bed”.

You see, I came home from a trip to Sydney for work three weeks ago with a dreadful cough. I’ve not felt unwell other than having for the first week a quite moist productive cough and rounds of coughing fits that would see me gripping what ever was closet to me so I didn’t cough my self to the moon. The second week it became a fairly dry cough but still massive coughing fits and my voice continued to sound well not the normal sweet voice I normally have. At the end of the second week the lower left side of my chest was causing me so much pain that I thought perhaps I had cracked a rib. Off to the doctors I went and after getting checked out to make sure it wasn’t anything more sinister it was confirmed that I had most likely pulled the muscles in that part of my chest. I was put on a cough suppressant and some antibiotics. The cough suppressant worked reasonably well to reduce my coughing fits to little piddly coughs. Well until I got to Penang of course and a day of travel and contrasting weather caught up with and the coughing returned in force. A cup of lemsip though and a good steam though managed to push the cough away again to just tiny coughs. The pulled muscles though not so fun. It hurts to laugh and well we do a fair bit of laughing. Still pain is the name of the game and whilst I could get some plastic surgery done whilst I’m over here, I don’t think they replace muscles yet. It is just a waiting game.

Yesterday we went to the Pinang Peranakan Mansion which is a museum of Nyonya life in the early heyday of Penang. Part of the museum is a Chinese jewellery museum which wasn’t as interesting as I had hoped as well it had been some time since the jewellery had been polished. The rest of the museum made up for it though, there was ornate furniture decorated with mother of pearl and some exquisite embroideries and very nice door handles and good turn of the century English floor tiles.

We then had a “scenic” walk round Georgetown before arriving at a shopping centre or really a “sweet Holy Grail of air con”. It was then a “scenic” walk round a series of connected shopping centres before a “scenic” walk to another shopping centre where I was looking for something an old coworker had asked me to bring back for her.

After that mission we hopped back in a taxi and headed back to the area where Jo lives to go to a shiny new shopping centre where we had lunch. One thing that Jo and I have in common is a love for hot food so we both ordered a curry laska for lunch that she had had before. One thing we didn’t think of is that my poor throat after three weeks of coughing is pretty scratched up. Curry laska not such a good idea. Some gelato made it better though.

Back to the apartment then for some couch/movie/chocolate time and I finally watched Finding Nemo. Yes, I had never watched it. A few laughing coughing fits later the movie was over.

We had dinner last night at Bali Hai. We had a freshwater fish steamed Hong Kong style. It was lovely. There was obligatory coconut water out of coconuts.

After dinner it was time for some tropical berry mojito shakers at TGI Fridays whilst we watched children play in the water light show in the piazza and listened to a local trio whilst we of course nattered some more.

And that was my first 24 odd hours in Penang. Today is a big day as not only is it Easter Sunday, hello chocolate and hot cross buns but it is Jodes birthday . Which is the reason I’m visiting

I’m still on Queensland time, so I’m awake waiting for the birthday girl to rise.

A trip to the farm

Published

Helen

on June 28, 2012

in adventures, food and random life

. 2 Comments

I went to The Farm on Sunday and I came back with a boot load of delicious goods and plenty of splinters in my hands (one day, I will actually remember to wear gloves whilst sorting through the macadamia leaves seeking out the nuts). I returned with oranges (Navels and Valencias), mandarins, bush (macadamia) nuts, a pumpkin and some flowers.

I was a little late picking up the bush nuts this year, mostly due to Uni commitments and also in part I guess to not wanting to go to The Farm as I wasn’t sure what my emotions would be, particularly as a lot of my memories of Grandad in the recent years have been around macadamia harvesting process. I got three boxes full of bush nuts. I husked the two smaller boxes this afternoon and have the large box to go. I should end up with a bit more than a milk crate worth of bush nuts in their shells. Then they will go into the deep freeze for a couple of months before I start shelling them. Whilst the bush nuts waited for me, the mandarin tree didn’t and I only got a very small box of mandarins. I won’t have enough mandarins to make any more mandarin jam I’ll have to be conservative with the mandarin jam till next year. I did however get plenty of oranges which means there will be plenty of orange cakes, eating oranges and who knows what else. I’ve already got a bottle of orange extract steeping in the cupboard and I’m most certainly getting my daily vitamin C intake at the moment

Semester 1, finished.

Published

Helen

on June 24, 2012

in food and Uni

. 4 Comments

My life from the last post until this past Tuesday has looked like this.

Books, paper, pens etc covering the ~~study desk~~ kitchen table. It’s been a tough semester as I’ve juggled the renovations, upheavals at work, another death in the family and life whilst doing my two subjects. It’s been fun and now I have just two subjects to go

However, I had my last exam for the semester on Tuesday and it also meant that the group of us four girls who all started together last year is now down to two, as S finished mid-year. The four of us grouped together again on Tuesday after the exam for a lunch celebration at Vapiano.

I had a Caprese pizza, it was 210 times delish. It was at least three times as good as the spinach and ricotta pizza I had at Giardinetto’s on Friday night with the ~~girls~~ ladies (when I was the youngest by almost 20 years, I don’t think girls is the correct word) from work.

Keeping on the food theme, a random assortment of food photos from my phone.

Mushroom risotto. I ♥ mushroom risotto.

Vegetable minestrone soup with a good dash of Pimentón Dulce. So so so so good.

Possibly one of my favourite quick dinners. Spaghetti with carrot and zucchini. You cook the spaghetti and just before the spaghetti is cooked, you add in the zucchini and carrot which has been julienned with a julienne peeler. Once the they are all cooked, drain, drizzle with a some olive oil and top with a good crack of pepper and some ricotta (props if you “make” it yourself). Eat.

How cute is this Siamese mushroom I got in my Food Connect box the other week?

To finish it off. Some avocados of the ornamental variety…. I spotted these at WAC yesterday and just had to take a photo.

now to decide if I should grow a tea bush or get a house cow

Published

Helen

on February 5, 2012

in cool things, food, home and garden and random life

. 4 Comments

because then my breakfast would be entirely home made.

This was my breakfast this morning. Home made bread and home made apricot jam with a cup of tea and the magazine from the weekend Australian.

This is the Helen size loaf of bread before I cut into it

Oh it is so very nice and I achieved a very nice translucent crumb which is the goal with slow rise breads.

Did you see the table?

It started off life with me looking like this.

A thorough sanding, a dose of deck clean, some garden furniture oil, another sand then then two more coats of garden furniture oil and it looks like this now. Yes, those are casalas, I searched high and low for outdoor chairs I liked but in the end casalas won me over. Oh so comfy

One day I’ll get round to stripping and painting the legs but that doesn’t need doing just yet.

Also I went to my first auction on Tuesday night and I bid on one item all night and I won it, it was a touch scary. When I arrived I did a quick case of what else was on show then had a quick look at the Countess before sitting down in a position where I could see if anyone else was looking at it … The bidding was between me and one other lady. Oh hello Royal Doulton Countess, I do love you so. I finally have bowls (and cups and more plates). I’m really quite happy about this win because I got it for a very good price and it means I don’t have to find a seller on UK Ebay who is happy to send bowls internationally. I may be known for my love of Figgjo Flint Lotte but I share that love equally with Royal Doulton Countess.

Now though, I must fold the washing and get ready for a short work week since Karl and Kata arrive early Thursday morning

The Tawny Frogmouths return so I blog again

Published

Helen

on January 18, 2012

in family, food, home and garden, photography and random life

. 2 Comments

The birds reappeared in the Silky Oak this morning. I woke up, looked out the window and there they were; preening their feathers in the early morning light. As per usual it has been about a week since they were last in the garden.

What else have I been up to since then?

Making use of one of my Christmas presents – a jam funnel, thanks Mum!

Using the above leads to this. Mulberry Jam, yummo.

Stocking up on mangoes, then slicing and freezing so there will be golden mango goodness way past the mango season. A whole tray of mangoes for $8 <– that’s my kind of bargain.

Look at all those bags of goodness.

After a few years of umming and ahhing over different digital radios, I finally picked one up. A Pure Elan II, whilst I dearly loved the Orla Kieley and the look of the other Mio radios they didn’t offer a pause feature. If I was getting a new kitchen radio I wanted to be able to press pause and come back to the radio when I’m off the phone/finished shooing away the sales person/bible promoter at the door etc.

I’m loving it, it’s great having ABC Jazz in the kitchen without either having to have the TV on or having my laptop on the kitchen table.

The house currently looks like a cross between a bomb site and a warehouse as Mum packs up as the ticker counts downs the days till she departs, we are almost in the single digits!

I leave you with this.

That’s my attempt at making a Mango Juice Bali style -> mango, ice, sugar syrup. Blend it together and drink up the sweetness.

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