iPhone 6

Travelling to Manila via Sydney and Singapore

Posted by Gary

I’m not sure as I ‘tap’ this out on my iPhone if I’ll publish this on Monday or not.

I’ve been pretty good lately at doing a Monday post and sharing some link love from the Canberra Food Bloggers Facebook group. I won’t be able to do that this week because I’m spending most of my day flying to Manila for work. I’m flying from Canberra to Manila via Sydney and Singapore. All going well I should be in Manila by 2300 AWST (0200 AEDT 20160216 [Tuesday]).

My day started at 5 am doing the last minute shut down and lock up of the apartment making sure everything was secure and there weren’t any perishable items left in the refrigerator. Have you ever gone away and come back to a refrigerator failure? I have. It’s not pleasant. Putrid and rancid odours assail the nostrils.

When I arrived at Canberra Internationl Airport I had some fruit for breakfast and a small skim flat white to wake me up.

I discovered while in the Virgin lounge that the free Wi-Fi ‘thinks’ YummyLummy.com is unsafe. I couldn’t open my page!

I flew to Sydney on VA637. An uneventful flight which landed ahead of schedule.

The snack was a raspberry muffin which had a use by date of 20161021! My goodness I wonder what preservatives it contained. I wonder if I could treat patients with fungal infections with that muffin 😃


Making my way from the domestic to international terminal wasn’t difficult. Virgin Australia puts on a bus.

Domestic to International terminal drama

When I got to gate 46 for the international terminal bus we were told there was a 30 minute wait and then the trip would take longer than 30 minutes because of a traffic problem around Sydney International Airport. We were instructed to catch the train. I’ve never caught the train from Sydney Domestic Airport before so this was a new experience. I followed some other passengers who seemed to know what to do. In the end it worked really well. This may be my standard method to get between terminals in the future.  
The border control processes were smooth as silk. The Singapore Airlines lounge is a short walk from border control. I stopped and changed some Australian dollars into Philippine pesos and then entered the Singapore Airlines lounge.  
Boarding my flight to Singapore via Singapore Airlines was pretty easy and when I got on SG232 I saw what must be the widest business class seat ever 😃
After boarding lunch was served pretty quickly.

Chicken in rice paper roll with mesclun, cherry tomato and nam jim dressing

 Garlic bread img_8753-1Grilled riverine beef with horseradish butter. Bordelaise sauce, celeriac dauphinois, green beans (which were squeaky), baby carrot and red capsicum.  Khiffir lime-coconut sorbet with passionfruit coulis.

 Woodside Mclaren Camembert, pyengana mature cheddar and trinity cellar blue cheese with grapes and sweet paste.

 The lunch was delicious.

The seats on the SG232 Airbus 380 are really wide. The widest seats I’ve experienced. I was able to work the entire flight from Sydney to Singapore except for when I was eating. The Singapore Airlines Airbus 380 is equipped with AC power plus two USB ports. It also has Wi-Fi but I wasn’t going to try that assuming the cost would be prohibitively expensive.

Close to the end of the flight we were served with a refreshment.

Braised egg noodles with seafood and mushroom in oriental sauce. It also came with a nice little bowl of green chilli in soy sauce.

 

There was a little turbulence throughout the flight but not enough to disrupt my work or any of the service.

The flight attendants were all very friendly and helpful. I’d say the service is amongst the best of any airline.

Getting into Changi Airport was pretty smooth and finding my way from terminal 3 to terminal 2 on the airport shuttle train was easy.

Do you want to know how big this airport is? The signs add walking times!

My next flight is SG918 SIN to MNL. As we board we’re told there is a delay because anther flight had to make an emergency landing.

The flight was smooth and the food was good.

Classic gravadlax cured salmon with dill, asparagus, mesclun salad, salmon roe and mustard dill dressing.  Char siew rice Chinese barbecued pork with steamed rice and leafy greens.

 Iced parfait of lychee and coconut with passionfruit coulis.

 I need to stop here. I landed in Manila quite late and I have an early start.

Suffice to say I hope I sleep well.

I’ll fill in some details in the next post.

Monday link love

Posted by Gary

Monday link love is something I have been doing on Monday posts for a couple of months. I usually add a list to the end of a post. Tonight I really didn’t have anything to write about so I figured I’d just call this post Monday link love.

Apart from my routine of adding links from our Canberra Food Bloggers Facebook group I wanted to mention a few blogs I’ve started following recently.

As a result of following Little Monster Girl I’ve gotten to know a few more bloggers who all follow Jennifer’s webcomic.

  • Travels with Choppy is Sarah’s story about her dog Choppy, her cat Schooner and her life
  • Jules Rules is Jules’ story about her rules of life and a new book she’s writing
  • Ana Calin’s Blog is Ana’s outlet for psychology quizzes and her fiction
  • Hyperion Sturm is an outlet for a cool blogger who writes about some dark aspects of life in fiction
  • Irene Design is Irene’s jewellery blog along with some photographs from Spain

Here are some posts from today’s link sharing from the Canberra Food Bloggers group

Of course I need to share some food photography of my own.

I started my morning with coffee

Microorganisms are essential to fine food like truffles. Great #coffee from Urban Bean Espresso Bar @asmicrobiology

A photo posted by Yummy Lummy | Gary Lum (@yummylummyblog) on

I had French vanilla almonds for morning tea

French vanilla almonds #lark filter #morningtea

A photo posted by Yummy Lummy | Gary Lum (@yummylummyblog) on

I had a toasted cheese and tomato croissant for lunch

 

For dinner I had a mammal-free Monday salmon salad with crunchy nuts

Photograph of Mammal-free Monday Salmon salad with crunchy nuts and a Bundaberg ginger beer for Monday link love
Mammal-free Monday Salmon salad with crunchy nuts and a Bundaberg ginger beer.

For dessert I had a minty milkshake with Milo

Photograph of Mint and Milo Milkshake for Monday link love
Mint and Milo Milkshake

Standing rib eye roast beef

Posted by Gary

Standing rib eye roast beef is one of my favourite roasts. The meat near the rib bones is always tender and it’s always moist. Not as much flavour as the blade and other cuts but the fatty loose tissue near the bone is to die for.

With Australia Day coming up on Tuesday 26 January I was thinking of either lamb or beef. There is now an undue amount of commercial pressure to eat lamb on Australia Day. The advertising campaign has been very successful. Check out this year’s advertisement. I’m sorry there is a little Channel 7 at the end.

So I’ve decided to cook the rib eye roast tonight and I’ll have lamb on Australia Day.

Standing rib eye roast beef
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: [url href=”http://garylum.me” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”]Gary Lum[/url]
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • Standing rib eye roast 1 kilogram
  • [cap id=”attachment_15562″ align=”alignnone” width=”1200″][url href=”undefined”][img src=”https://yummylummy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2016-01-24_11.12.54_005_GARY_LUM_FB.jpg” width=”1200″ height=”1200″ class=” size-full” title=”Roast beef” alt=”Photograph of Roast rib eye beef standing rib roast”][/url]Roast rib eye beef standing rib roast[/cap]
  • Onion
  • Lemon
  • Carrots
  • Red quinoa
  • White quinoa
  • Green peppercorns
  • Kale coleslaw
  • Mixed nuts crushed
  • Kensington Pride mango
Instructions
  1. In a baking tray may a trivet with onion and add the lemon, quinoa, and carrots
  2. Cook at 140 °C for thee hours
  3. Prepare a salad with kale coleslaw, crushed mixed nuts and mango
  4. When the roast is finished cooking, all it to rest for 20 minutes
  5. Scoop out the quinoa and peppercorns and add to the coleslaw as a dressing
  6. Cut between the bones and vacuum pack on half for another meal
  7. Serve up and shoot a photograph
  8. Eat the meal and hope I can digest it all before dessert
  9. Wash the dishes
  10. Write the recipe
  11. Blog (verb)

Here are some photographs of my rib eye roast. It was worth waiting for this.

Photograph of Roast rib eye beef standing rib roast
Roast rib eye beef standing rib roast
Photograph of baking tray with vegetables
Baking tray with vegetables
Photograph of Roast rib eye beef standing rib roast
Roast rib eye beef standing rib roast
Photograph of Roast rib eye beef standing rib roast
Roast rib eye beef standing rib roast
Roast rib eye beef standing rib roast
Roast rib eye beef standing rib roast
Standing rib eye roast beef with mango, quinoa, kale and nut coleslaw served with carrots, onion and green peppercorns
Standing rib eye roast beef with mango, quinoa, kale and nut coleslaw served with carrots, onion and green peppercorns

Earlier in the afternoon I had a Full Moon cake from Ricardo’s cafe and patisserie at Jamison.

Photograph of Full Moon from Ricardo's cafe and patisserie
Full Moon from Ricardo’s cafe and patisserie

Do you like rib eye roast beef? How do you cook it?

Hong Kong Disneyland

Posted by Gary

One of the reasons for holidaying in Hong Kong was because of Hong Kong Disneyland. I explained in the first holiday post that our planned holiday in Florida fell through and because that included a Disney World visit, considered other Disney options.

To start the day I went with plain congee and dim sum. Not quite a breakfast of champions.

Plain congee and dim sum

We elected to purchase in advance two-day tickets. We’d heard that Disneyland is bigger than places like Dreamworld and Movieworld on the Gold Coast so we figured a two-day pass would help us see everything we wanted to see and not be disappointed.. We caught a series of trains from Hong Kong Island to Disneyland.

The final train is a special Disneyland train fitted out with Mickey Mouse shaped windows and hand holds. I have no idea who the bloke in this photograph is.

The Disneyland Train
The Disneyland Train
Welcome to Hong Kong Disneyland (We didn't stay in the resort)
Welcome to Hong Kong Disneyland (We didn’t stay in the resort)

At the entrance before the ticketing area is a big whale fountain. Atop the fountain is a surfing Mickey. The column of water moves up and down.

Surfing Mickey on a whale
Surfing Mickey on a whale
We have tickets
We have tickets
Fantasyland Castle
Fantasyland Castle
We went into Adventureland
We went into Adventureland
The Adventureland treehouse
The Adventureland treehouse was explored
Miss14 and Ms18 in Adventureland
Miss14 and Ms18 in Adventureland
Grizzly Gulch Jail
Grizzly Gulch Jail

The second best ride is the Grizzly Gulch Mine Car Ride. I found a YouTube point of view video which is better than any photograph I could have shot.

Ms20 really likes Toy Story and so does her BF apparently.

Toy Story Land
Toy Story Land

We went on the parachute ride.

Toy Story Parachute Ride
Toy Story Parachute Ride

It was okay. Nothing like the Big Drop at Dreamworld or Batman at Movieworld.

We also rode Slinky Dog.

Slinky Dog
Slinky Dog

We walked back to Adventureland and got on the Safari Jungle River Cruise.

Daniel from the Safari Jungle River Cruise
Daniel from the Safari Jungle River Cruise

Daniel was pretty funny in his own way.

Safari Jungle River Cruise
Safari Jungle River Cruise
Safari Jungle River Cruise
Safari Jungle River Cruise
Safari Jungle River Cruise
Safari Jungle River Cruise
Safari Jungle River Cruise
Safari Jungle River Cruise

Okay, Yummy Lummy is a food blog so I need to add a little more about food. The most appalling and disappointing thing about Hong Kong Disneyland is the quality of the food. I expected the prices to be high. That’s the norm for theme parks unfortunately. But in most places I’ve accepted the meal as at least mediocre.

I should have gone with my gut and stuck with Asian food. After all we were in Hong Kong and there were Asian options. Even Chinese options. I was hungry and we were in Fantasyland and Ms18 was keen on a Mickey Mouse shaped pizza. Rather than waste time looking for another outlet I asked for what I thought might be reasonable. I knew the Chinese should never have shared any food with Marco Polo. The European versions of Chinese food don’t rate. I went with what was described as a creamy mushroom pasta.

The photographs tell the story. The pasta was stuck together. It was tepid. It was too salty. The mushrooms were chewy. It was disgusting. My advice is do not ask for this from Fantasyland’s Royal Banquet Room.

Royal Banquet Hall Fantasyland
Royal Banquet Hall Fantasyland
Creamy mushroom pasta served by the Royal Banquet Hall Fantasyland
Creamy mushroom pasta served by the Royal Banquet Hall Fantasyland

Okay, rant over until next time 

So here is a gallery of some random photographs from the afternoon.

Here comes another food rant.

For afternoon tea. Yes, on holidays we enjoy afternoon tea. I ignored tried to forget my body mass and my expanding waistline.

We went to Main Street and noticed a cafe selling High Tea. Now I’ve had high tea at Raffles in Singapore, the Hyatt in Canberra and a few other places. That said, my expectations were suitably set for Disneyland.

It all looked nice and there was appropriate Mickey Mouse branding on some of the products. The chocolate drink which I had assumed to be cold was hot and limp is how I would describe it. The plates had mixes of sweet and savoury on a plate which got a little confusing. I don’t mind a sweet and savoury high tea, but keep them separated on different plates. There was a scone which was just awful. It was tough and chewy. There was also a layered pastry which looked like it should be sweet but it was salty. The mouthfeel from the macaron suggested it was a few days old.

Here’s a gallery of high tea photographs.

High Tea from Main Street
High Tea from Main Street
High Tea from Main Street
High Tea from Main Street
High Tea from Main Street
High Tea from Main Street
High Tea from Main Street
High Tea from Main Street
High Tea from Main Street
High Tea from Main Street
High Tea from Main Street

 

After high tea we settled into a spot for the parade and fireworks. It was during this five hour period that my patience was sorely tested. I’ve already mentioned in a previous post about our encounters with people who do not have a similar understanding of personal space and both situational and spatial awareness. The girls were really keen to get a good view for the evening parade so we staked out a place on a street curb which impeded no one else and we sat/stood there waiting. From time to time one of us would break off to visit the rest rooms or go looking at something. As night fell the crowd grew. Officials roped off an area near us so the frail and infirm could get a good view. Behind me I felt people poking and prodding. People were coming off the street in front of us and just pushing Miss14 aside to get through. I man spread to protect her and stood my ground buffeting shoulders of passers by. One bloke behind me then started poking me in the shoulder and told me he expected me to sit on the ground when the parade started. I’d already planned to do that but being told by someone just annoyed me. Then he started pulling at my camera bag. I nearly took a swing.

After the parade we turned around getting ready for a wait for the fireworks. Again, people just streamed in front of us. Two women came and stood right in front of Ms20 while she was photographing the fireworks. No consideration whatsoever. It was just unbelievable how rude people could be.

Here is a gallery of some images from the parade and fireworks. I haven’t processed any of these images. I was too annoyed to focus on the photography at the time.

The fireworks finish at 9 pm and then there is the crush to the exit, boarding the Disneyland train and the making connections with two more trains before the 10 minute work from the Causeway Bay MTR station to the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

It’s true what they say, Hong Kong is for people who like to wake up late and stay awake late.

We came back the next morning after breakfast.

Toast with scrambled eggs and baked beans with a hamburger rissole and deep fried potato
Toast with scrambled eggs and baked beans with a hamburger rissole and deep fried potato

I’d say our favourite rides were Space Mountain and Grizzly Gulch Mine Carts. Both were reasonably fast with good twists and turns. The Grizzly Gulch has a long backward stretch making it exciting. The Space Mountain ride is mainly in the dark with projections on the ceilings and walls. It made me wish we had a Star Trek theme park with rides on the NX-01, NCC 1701 A, B, C, D and E, as well as shuttle craft and the Defiant. Most of all it would be great to have battles with Klingon and Romulan Birds of Prey.

Anyway back to Disneyland. One ride we waited over 60 minutes to do was the Autopia car ride. Miss14 was my driver and I took a time-lapse video of the track work.

Autopia At Hong Kong Disneyland from Gary Lum on Vimeo.

The girls at Welcome to Disneyland
The girls at Welcome to Disneyland
Ms18 jumping for joy
Ms18 jumping for joy

2015-12-30_09.11.51_001_GARY_LUM_FB

Opening ceremony
Opening ceremony

2015-12-30_10.01.35_001_GARY_LUM_FB

The teacup ride was fun and had its moments
The teacup ride was fun and had its moments
The mad hatter tea cups
The mad hatter tea cups

The next ride was “It’s a small world” which was very colourful.

Ms20 with a paratrooper from Toy Story
Ms20 with a paratrooper from Toy Story
Space Mountain. No turning back after this point.
Space Mountain. No turning back after this point.
No selfie sticks
No selfie sticks

For lunch I couldn’t go past the Star Wars Darth Vader cheeseburger. As much as I prefer Star Trek, my favourite character is Darth Vader. I love the dark side of the force.

Darth Vader Cheeseburger

Me eating my Darth Vader cheeseburger
Me eating my Darth Vader cheeseburger
Miss14 and Ms20 with Toy Story's Woody and Jesse
Miss14 and Ms20 with Toy Story’s Woody and Jesse
Fantasyland
Fantasyland
Fantasyland castle
Fantasyland castle

We wended the second day with an egg custard tart

2015-12-30_16.22.30_001_GARY_LUM_FB

Farewell Hong Kong Disneyland
Farewell Hong Kong Disneyland

For dinner we agreed we’d stop at the Kowloon MTR station and look around. We came up the Tasty Congee and Noodle Wantun Shop where we stopped and enjoyed a nice meal. We craved vegetables so we asked for some Chinese vegetables along with our noodles.

2015-12-30_17.49.22_001_GARY_LUM_FB 2015-12-30_17.52.48_001_GARY_LUM_FB 2015-12-30_17.55.41_001_GARY_LUM_FB

So ended another day. We were pretty tired and happy for a relatively early evening.

Have you been to Hong Kong Disneyland?

Stanley Market and Ladies Market, Hong Kong

Posted by Gary
The Yummy Lummy Cooking for one podcast
The Yummy Lummy Cooking for one podcast
Stanley Market and Ladies Market, Hong Kong
Loading
/

My daughters and I have been planning an overseas holiday for about a year. Originally we were going to Florida in the middle of December as part of a gymnastics event. Unfortunately that fell through. As an alternative we agreed on Hong Kong. There are a lot of good reasons for Hong Kong. Food. Hong Kong Disney. Food. Ocean Park. Food. No jet lag because it’s in AWST. Food. It’s only an eight hour flight from Brisbane as opposed to more than double that to Florida. Food. Shopping at markets. Food. Photography. Food. Mostly importantly, I’d have much more time with my daughters than if we all went as part of a large gymnastic team event. Did I mention food?

So my part of this adventure started when I flew to Brisbane (BNE) from Canberra (CBR) on Christmas day to enjoy a day with my parents and brothers. I didn’t eat dinner! When I woke up on Boxing day (Saturday 26 December) I still felt full.

Public Art

QF950 CBR to BNE flight snacks
QF950 CBR to BNE flight snacks

I greeted my daughters at my parents’ place early in the morning and we all hugged in a huge amount of excitement. I may have squealed.

The flight from Brisbane (BNE) to Hong Kong (HKG) was pretty uneventful. We flew Qantas (QF97). We managed to get the A and B seats in rows 23 and 24. Sweet! Unfortunately my entertainment console didn’t work but I wasn’t upset. I had lots of books and podcasts on my iPad to keep me going as well as yam biscuits and Mum’s almond shortbread biscuits.

Yam biscuits and almond shortbread for QF97 BNE to HKG
Yam biscuits and almond shortbread for QF97 BNE to HKG
Soon after takeoff from BNE
Soon after takeoff from BNE
Beef cheeks on QF97
Beef cheeks on QF97
Chocolate mousse on QF97
Chocolate mousse on QF97
Chocolate mousse on QF97
Chocolate mousse on QF97
Weis' ice cream
Weis’ ice cream
Slider and hot dog on QF97
Slider and hot dog on QF97
Slider and hot dog on QF97
Slider and hot dog on QF97
Slider on QF97
Slider on QF97
Cloud porn over the South China Sea
Cloud porn over the South China Sea

On arriving our passage through the border agencies was trouble-free. The only hitch was the ground transport to the Cosmopolitan Hotel. We had booked a shuttle bus with Buffalo Tours and our arrival gate wasn’t where the tour operator was. There was a moment of “what do we do?” but then I just called the operator and sorted it out. I’m grateful for my Vodafone international roaming feature. An extra $5 a day and I keep all the features I use back home.

We got to our hotel feeling quite tired. Miss14, Ms18 and Ms20 all collapsed into bed after they showered and were down and out for the count.

On Sunday morning we woke up refreshed and ready to go. We had planned to visit Stanley Market and Ladies Markets.

As part of our accommodation package, we had breakfast included. The hotel dining room was utilitarian.

I went for deep fried potato (not quite a potato gem [tater tot] but it was deep fried so it was good anyway), scrambled eggs, a variety of dim sum, waffles and condensed milk. There was also plain congee, cereal, pastries and fruit.

Breakfast deep fried potatoes, scrambled eggs, dim sum and waffles with condensed milk
Breakfast deep fried potatoes, scrambled eggs, dim sum and waffles with condensed milk
Breakfast deep fried potatoes, bao and dim sum
Breakfast deep fried potatoes, bao and dim sum
After breakfast, we walked to Causeway Station and had a few goes at finding it. From there we caught the MTR (mass transit railway) to Central Station. We found the Hong Kong Station and caught the number 6 bus to Stanley Market. The double decker bus was fun. The twists and turns created a little nausea but it was pretty much a roller coaster ride. Watching how close we got to walls and other vehicles was hair raising.
Stanley Markets was fun. We bought little handbags. I bought a black one for a lens. Ms20 and Ms18 bought robes. Ms18 laughed at me but the little zip up bag at only AUD5 was perfect.
BB Gun. If I was a kid I'd beg for this.
BB Gun. If I was a kid I’d beg for this.
We went for a walk to Blake Pier and shot some photographs.
Stanley Market ocean view
Stanley Market ocean view
Stanley Market boats in the bay
Stanley Market boats in the bay
Blake Pier new Stanley Market
Blake Pier new Stanley Market
We had lunch at Toby Inn. It was a local cheap and cheerful Chinese restaurant. Everything was sticky and nothing looked clean. One of the staff tossed crockery onto the table with a deft hand. All the plates and bowls seemed to magically find its spot without anything breaking.
Miss14 chose deep fried crispy skin chicken, Ms18 chose salty chilli squid, Ms20 chose beef with rice noodles and I chose deep fried pork with sweet and sour sauce. It was a pretty good meal with generous serving sizes. We shared everything and enjoyed the meal.
Miss14 chose deep fried crispy skin chicken, Ms18 chose salty chilli squid, Ms20 chose beef with rice noodles and I chose deep fried pork with sweet and sour sauce.
Miss14 chose deep fried crispy skin chicken, Ms18 chose salty chilli squid, Ms20 chose beef with rice noodles and I chose deep fried pork with sweet and sour sauce.
After lunch we caught the number 6 bus back to Central Station and caught a train to Mong Kok station and walked to Ladies Market. These markets were really busy. We bought T-shirts, USB sticks and earphones plus a tooth brush cap.
We made our way to Langham Place to rest our feet after about three rounds of the Ladies Market. We then had an early dinner at The Dining Room. I think it’s a chain. Miss14, Ms18 and Ms20 all had the noodles with prawn and pork wonton soup. I had the chilli noodles with chicken fillet. We were all pretty satisfied with our dinner, especially after we received spoons to load up with our chopsticks. After dinner we had ice cream for dessert. We walked to Mong Kok station and when to Admiralty Station to catch another train to Causeway Bay station. From there we walked back to the hotel.
Chilli noodles and chicken fillet
Chilli noodles and chicken fillet
It was a huge day.