chronological order**
This was part of dinner on one of the nights... ingredients were bought by the females ( ie. my aunt, cousin, mom and me) but we got stuck in a traffic jam on the way back so it was kinda a late dinner for everyone :P Above is fried tofu stuffed with minced meat :)
Cajun crawfish ( something like mini lobster) which was super spicy, and one had to remove a lot of shell to eat a tiny piece of meat so I only made a few.
Some of the takeaway side dishes we got from a chinese food court- bamboo shoots, seaweed and pig's ear
Stirfried kai lan and salmon
Cajun shrimp ( yup, like the one in Bubba Gump restaurant- except homemade)
And we made hakka abacus seed ( suan pan zi) the next day, a 'speciality' dish of mine that my mom requested for me to make there
Lots of ingredients!
The 'seeds' themselves! Made with yam and glutinous rice flour mmm..
The final dish cooked together by my dad!
It tastes better than it looks-and its strictly for those who like veggies! :P
Gumbo ( an african stew) we made another day with shrimp and smoked sausage! Tasted so good with rice :)
And using my aunt's breadmaker, we made some varieties of mini bite-sized breads!
The wrapped up ones are chocolate wassants! :) Bread wrapped up with choc chips
Cinammon rolls! with raisins :)
And sausage breads using mini bite-sized sausages!
All done and ready to be put in the oven heheh :)
Whoohoo! After they got baked!
They tasted so good! Fluffy and nice..thought it wasn't gonna work out for a while cos we forgot to add an ingredient at the beginning and had to restart the timer, then the dough over-rose..but fortunately the recipe was very forgiving and it all turned out wonderfully ;)
On our last morning before leaving for Singapore, my aunt made some tapioca kueh which her children like, using frozen grated cassava we bought before- it turned out really yummily!! <3
Top: The already steamed kueh
Bottom: grated coconut for coating
It's only green in the middle cos my aunt remembered about her pandan extract the last minute and stirred it in, but the sides had already been steamed :P
mmmm...I'm gonna try making this someday :P
Cheddar's-one of the restaurants we went to after doing some shopping earlier on!
It's a casual American restaurant which seemed really popular judging from the full house inside
And with good reason too- their drinks are refillable! I ordered a raspberry iced tea :)
Onion rings as an appetiser! Huge!!
I ordered a vegetable plate (US$5.99) which came with either a caeser salad/ soup of choice. I ordered the soup: a chicken tortilla soup!
Which looked like this^ It was nice though, the tortilla strips went well with the soup but I really wish they won't spam cheese on top of everything ):
And it also came with 4 sides of choice. I ordered a coleslaw, red beans with rice, sweet baby carrots and a cheesy broccoli casserole.
The baby carrots were really SWEET! yum I could have done with double helpings of it :P the beans with rice were a lil too salty though but I liked the soft kidney beans :) Cheesey broccoli was TOO CHEESY! I didn't finish it and gave some to my dad.. and the coleslaw was not bad. Like normal coleslaw I guess. Overall the set was really worth it though, I left feeling so full. The portion sizes were enormous!
The service was good too, when I got too full to drink my tea but still wanted refills ( greedy singaporean heheh) the waitress packed it in a to-go styrofoam cup for me :)
Dinner that night ( our last dinner) was a FEAST!
I made some tang yuan to celebrate the winter solstice :)
We had some pretty awesome homemade clam chowder worthy of any seafood restaurant ( and I found out how FATTENING it really is! O: But yolo i guess :) )
we had burgers on the grill
fluffy burger buns
fresh veggies which were later grilled and tasted AMAZIN'
burger patties with a slice of cheese on top of each!
Ooh baby look at that melty cheese...
Put the patty on a lightly buttered grilled bun
PERFECTION<3
This was like the best burger I had eaten on this trip. The patty was so tender and juicy and flavourful and the fluffy, soft and slightly sweet bun complemented it so well..homemade is till the best after all!
Even though I was super full from all the yummy eats, i was determined to eat these sweet potatoes, even if I had to wait an entire night!
And wait I did..but it was worth it :))
What a great way to spend the last night, in the company of family and homemade food!
The next day, we had lunch at 'Sweet Tomato' before heading to the airport for our flight back. I had been looking forward to coming to this place as it was a salad buffet and I loveee veggies! <3
One whole long line of every veggie one could ask for in a salad <3 And lots of dressing choices too!
They also served an assortment of pastas
and a few soups!
Chicken and noodle soup with fresh multi-grain bread! Yumms!
Signature chilli with a home baked corn muffin! Tasted amazing together <3
Chicken and rice, with a sprinkle of crackers on top. Abit too saltish though!
After I'd eaten my fill of the main courses, it was off to desserts!
low fat tapioca pudding with jelly! Nomms! Really sweet though
And sundae which you could take yourself!!
A sweet way to end this amazing holiday<3
We had to leave Sydney behind though :'( As we were leaving the house she started whining and yelping loudly like she knew we were leaving ( which she probably did, smart dog) and she never did that before ): It was so saddening it made even my mom tear up a little.
Sad Sydney a few days after we left
):
Holidays come and go and soon we must go back to reality but I have really enjoyed this holiday while it lasted, and probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much without my aunt and her family so I'll like to thank them once again! <3<3
byeeee!
