Saturday arvo and dinner

This afternoon, Jac and I went to the public pool with her niece Savannah. Jac and Savannah hung out together in the “leisure” section of the pool, while I walked laps in the “walkers” lane. The shallow end of the lane was 0.9 metres, and the deep end was 1.3 metres, so whenever I got to the deep end, I was well up to my neck and could only move in slow-motion. It was really good exercise. I guess some people would find it monotonous and dreadfully dull, but I really enjoyed walking up and down the pool. I really don’t like the smell of chlorine, which is why I don’t go to pools much – but I think I might tag along with Jac and Savannah every now and then. All up I think I walked for around 40 minutes, waving back at Savannah whenever she waved at me from where she was with Jac.

We were both starving after our exercise, and so after dropping Savannah off home and getting changed, we decided to make another trip (the second time this week!) to our favourite asian food hall to have dinner. Jac opted for Japanese this time and ordered the deluxe set with teriyaki beef. The set comes with rice, salad (with that yummy Japanese sesame oil and garlic dressing), tempura vegetables (zucchini, sweet potato and eggplant), a tempura prawn and a bowl of miso soup. The beef was really tasty and very tender. I was surprised that it was so tender, as the pieces seemed thicker than I thought they should be. They looked like they would be chewy but they weren’t at all. The beef had a beautiful chargrilled flavour and wasn’t as sweet as most teriyaki we’ve had – really delicious.

Deluxe set with teriyaki beef

Here’s a better view of the tempura.

Tempura

Jac enjoyed her miso soup. I think I’ve said before, miso soup is something I have never liked and never choose. Whenever I get miso soup as part of a Japanese set, I always give it to someone else.

Miso soup

I ordered two dishes. First, loh mai kai (glutinous chicken rice), served with a side dish of garlicky chilli sauce. The loh mai kai is both sweet and savoury, and deliciously saucy in the middle where the meats are piled up on top of the rice. There is barbecue pork and a really juicy, succulent piece of chicken thigh meat right in the middle. It’s only a small serve, smaller than the size of a CD – snack-sized, really. My grandma used to make loh mai kai for our breakfast when we were kids (yes, in Australia!). Her version had mushrooms and lup cheong (chinese sausage) in it too.

Loh mai kai

Second, chai tow kway (known to some people as “carrot cake”). The ‘cubes’ are made of white radish (the so-called “carrot”) and rice flour. They are stir-fried with soy sauce (and I think a touch of sweet black soy sauce), quite a lot of egg, garlic, spring onion and mung bean sprouts. The dish has been topped with a sprinkling of deep-fried shallots too. You can request it with to be fried with chilli or without. I always choose it without chilli. Tonight I ate it with the chilli sauce that came with my loh mai kai. Jac had a few mouthfuls of the chai tow kway, and I demolished the rest.

Chai tow kway

Tomorrow is housework and homework day. I have to sort out the cat litter trays as well as do the laundry and dishes. I also have to do a pile of reading for class, as well as work on my PhD completion schedule. Although my meeting with the Dean is not until the 30th, I’ll be meeting up with my supervisor this week, and I want to discuss my completion schedule with her. At this stage it’s still on track for a mid-February finish next year. Fingers crossed, touch wood etc etc.

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