Nothing has been done, yet I still have something to say

Once again, I’ve been very slack in my list. I guess I’m finding it hard to motivate myself when I know I’m going away for at least a month or two, therefore making the whole thing a little bit longer and blablablaexcuses.

Anyway, I haven’t done anything since the last blog.

So here are three other things I’ll tell you about.

#1. You probably don’t remember, but in the last blog I wrote about how I went to Ken Yakitori for dinner and how, despite the NZ Herald telling me to, I wasn’t able to buy fried squid tentacles. Turns out that there are actually two Ken Yakitori’s…I know…who’d have thought. I didn’t do enough reading before hand and went to the wrong one. Cool ay.

#2. When I told me sister, Katie, that I was gonna head to Melbourne for a bit I said that I would have to create a new blog called ‘Cooking for One’.

This was the conversation that followed:

Katie: “That’s a great idea”

Me: “Thanks”

Katie: “But it won’t be for long…”
Me: “Huh?”
Katie: “It’d then be Cooking for Two”

Me: “Haha! You think I’m gonna move to Melbourne and find the man of my dreams in quick time do ya?”

Katie: “Yes”

Me: “Oh”

I then told my good friend, Niki, about that conversation and this is what she had to add:
“YES! You’d have ‘Cooking for One’, then ‘Cook for Two’ and then ‘EATING for Two’”.

Ooooo boy.

#3. And finally, just a relatively amusing story to spice up your Thursday night (or whatever time and day you’re reading this).

For years I had this rather cute baby photo displayed in my bedroom.

I always knew it was either Katie or me, but I’d never bothered figuring it out.

Until one day I did bother, and went and asked the bearer of all knowledge (mother) the ultimate question…“which of your daughters is this?”

That answer that followed was something which will be with me for the rest of my days. Kind of like the moment you find out you’re adopted (I know it’s coming) and that you’re not a natural red head.

…….

Mum: “Ummm…well…that’s neither of you”

That’s right people. For a large proportion of my life I had the copyright protected photo which is sold with the photo frame displayed in my bedroom. It’s a tragic story of confusion and stupidity. Not exactly blockbuster material, but it may just be classy enough for some daytime TV show to look into the deeper psychological effects this will have in the years to come.

Just FYI…this is what Katie and I did look like as youngsters…

Katie being the always caring older sister that she is 

             My love of reading has not quite kept to this level.

                 But Big Bird is definitely still one of my favs.

              

                

A couple of ticks with a Melbourne twist

Ok…so there’s been a bit of a slowing down of the ol’ blog posting/list completely in the last two weeks. This is mostly due to the fact that there has been some development in my current work and as it stands I will be in Melbourne for around two months come July/Aug. After this time there is a big black hole of unknown wonder…so for now I will continue to do what I can from my list, but the conclusion of it may not happen within that year specified.

In saying all of that, I have managed to get a couple of things ticked off since last time.

On Friday, myself and a couple of friends from High School went to Ken Yakitori in town…it was pretty cramped but had a cool vibe to the place.  

I need to apologize in advance for the photos…I didn’t turn the flash on, so I’ve just adjusted them as best I could…

First they gave us a free plate of cabbage…Yep.

On the list it said I needed to order the fried squid tentacles. This, not unlike the Takapuna Night Market, did not exist (my suspicions on who wrote this list is growing by the day). So I just got the calamari, as this was going to be as close as I could get.

It was so increibly deep fried you’d think oil was a health food. This, obviously, made it taste delicious. And although slightly too spicy for my taste, I definitely had my fair share + one.

And then these are all the other things we shared…

Broccoli salad…a strange, yet reasonably enjoyable, combination of cold blanched broccoli with a yummy miso mayonnaise dressing.

Bacon wrapped prawn skewers with another mayo type deliciousness.

Potato cakes…these were kinda weird…when you’re expecting a hash brown-like experience, and it turns out to be somewhat dense and in between chewy, stringy and mushy it really blows your mind.

Chicken skewers with ‘plum’ sauce. I say ‘plum’ because I have never in my life seen it look so much like tomato sauce. And let’s just say that it tasted like it belonged to neither the plum or tomato family. However, the chicken was beautifully cooked.

Pork belly and onion skewers…a little bit on the chewy side, but edible nonetheless.

And if that wasn’t enough, we took a stroll to Movenpick for dessert. Oh Carmelita, you get me every time.

And in other list ticking shenanigans…another couple of friends and I went to Little and Friday in Takapuna for a bit of doughnut action. They had previously indulged in a doughnut from here, so opted for one of the other delights (a coconut and lemon cake and a brioche…both of which were spectacular).

So there we were…11am on a working Wednesday morning…the place was packed and only two cream doughnuts remained. I got my hands on one, managed to grab a seat and oh my good gracious george of glory…a crispy sticky sweet shell, a perfectly doughy doughnut inside and filled with jam and a lightly sweetened wonderfully creamed cream.

Need I say more?