Culture Kulture Kween Newsletter

Not a Newsletter: Mar23 Edition

9 mins read

When rereading my old diary entries, I noticed that I had more than a few entries in March I titled “March Madness” or some version of it. This month, it finally clicked ━ March will always be a charging month because we enter the Aries season! Duh!!

This March has been a full-on madness ride too, but I am not complaining; far for it. The month brought an expansion in life. I travelled from India to Singapore and back to Melbourne before flying to Auckland the week after ━ with two sick days in between. And despite not touching my CPA book at all this month, I feel like I have done plenty of other things, and I am still super grateful for it.

Highlights

👩‍👧 ━ Hanging out with Amma during the short Singapore stopover. I also spent an evening with my cousin and her family, visited the temple in Little India and had a lunch date at our fave place in Chinatown.

👯‍♀️ ━ Jik came to Melbourne for a day. We LOL-ed, cried, hugged, posed, did Yoga, binged on snacks, feasted Thai food (Yarraville’s Smiling Buffalo) and planned our girls’ trip this year.

🧡 ━ Barkley Street was closed for an afternoon to celebrate Holi Festival. I am not writing another post about it, but if you want to see the pictures, it’s on my Insta.

Culture Kulture Kween Newsletter

🍽️ ━ I celebrated my seven years migrating to Melbourne with a Westside Wanders’ three-course in three-restaurants dinner in Sunshine. It was an event by Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (MFWF). I also attended another MFWF event in Robata called The Heart Inside Night. The best part of the night, even more than the Ghibli-themed food, was witnessing a real-life proposal (a bucket list item).

🛥️ ━ I was in Auckland for a week for work and learned tons of new work-related stuff. Also, despite being busy, it felt like a nice break from normalcy to experience new things (hotel, food, route, colleagues, etc.) while pushing myself to find ways to stick to my habits.

🏉 ━ AFL season has officially started!

Love and Found

📚 ━ I saw an Indonesian folklore-themed artwork by a local Singapore artist, Weng Pixin, titled Sang Nila Utama. It was love at first sight, and long story short, it’s now mounted to our library room wall.

A snippet from Weng’s website about the art:

“The year was 1299 when Sang Nila Utama, a Srivijayan prince from South Sumatra of Indonesia discovered the island of Singapore while he was out hunting a stag in the forested areas of Bintan.”-taken from someplace on the internet.

📚 ━ A poetry book to add to your empowering self-care arsenal: Maxine Beneba Clarke’s How Decent Folk Behave. Reading her poems reignited my love for reading poetry; hence I just downloaded Artemis Made Me Do It for before-bed reading. The online short story I recently read and enjoyed: Osaka Calling.

How Decent Folks Behave Maxine Beneba

Media Watch

📺 ━ I watched plenty of good TVs recently; Inside Amy Schumer, The Last of Us, Ticket to Paradise, The Visitor, The Stray and The Invitation.

Foodie Guide-y

🍡 ━ Chris, my colleague, introduced us to KorChi, a Korean Chinese restaurant in Melbourne CBD. The Tteokbokki was on point – spicy and comforting.

Speaking of k-food, I had Bulgogi Spaghetti at simonandlee while in Auckland; it was a fusion done well.

Another k-food-related highlight: our neighbour invited us for a k-bbq arvo. It was a boozy-long lun, after which I spent the rest of the day passed out. Good times!

🍝 ━ While in Auckland, I had a fancy and delicious paid-by-work Italian meal at Badduzi and a self-paid Japanese buffet at Katsura.

🍲 ━ Fafa and I went to an impromptu dinner at Thai Baan after watching a comedy show in the city. The pork-bone soup was perfect for the starting-to-get-chilly weather in Melbourne.

🍗 ━ I cooked both Chicken Chettinad and Kadai Chicken this month. If you wonder why I tend to cook chicken dishes, that’s because Fafa loves them, and I love him — saying that I want to cook crab curry and tempe-based dishes next month. And maybe baked banana bread if I manage to find the time. Wish me (and the kitchen) luck!

🍷 Wine recommendations: any Penfolds brand and my go-to: almost any blended wines that cost $16-$25 in Dan Murphy’s.

💸 We had the most underwhelming, uber-expensive-not-worth-the-money dinner at Firangi Superstar: Modern Indian Restaurant and Bar in Singapore. We went here because a friend recommended it and also because I have heard strangers rave about it. It’s a NO NO NO.

Browsing History

https://www.instagram.com/p/CpiCTkuLfRE/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY%3D

Why Auckland SucksThe best Auckland eateries for solo travellersWinner of Australia’s best vanilla sliceUnconventional Writing Habits101 Very Simple Habits That Will Improve Your LifeWays to Start Journaling and Feel the Emotional BenefitsFood That Can Be Regrown from ScrapsThe 21 things you learn in your first year in Melbourne37 things that make you a true Melburnian35 incredible facts about Melbourne that you probably didn’t know

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpaACQfKDFa/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY%3D

Tiny Joys

UberEats-ing Sumthin’ Dumplin’ again and again while in Auckland ♥ Indian kurtis with pockets ♥ Bookclub ♥ Friendly Singaporean waiter ♥ A sneak peek to Crown Hotel suite ♥ Sauna ♥ Smooth and safe flights ♥ Early hotel check-in after a tiring journey ♥ Hanging out with my cousin who came to Melbourne for a hot minute ♥ Sharing $1.5 fish curry meal with Amma in Little India Singapore ♥ Nutella cookies ♥ T2Tea’s Gone Surfing tea is back on stock! ♥ Yoga while travelling ♥

Meanwhile, on Kulture Kween:

Sushi, Sashimi and Sake – Japanese Cooking Masterclass in Robata (another Robata post is coming up soon) ♥ Tasting The Best Dumplings on Melbourne Dumpling Walk (stay tuned for the Auckland version) ♥ Toddy Shop in Kerala An Authentic Mallu ExperienceChai Wallah Semi Authentic India Roadside Chai StallQantas, You Owe Me $53.23!A Not Really Typical Auckland Sunday

Time Machine

Read more about last year’s happenings.

Thank You, Next!

I’ll let you in a lil’ secret, this is the section that I usually start with when I write these monthly newsletter posts because it’s the easiest to remember 😛

🍲 ━ Fafa’s birthday is on this weekend! And we have Fafa-weekend-of-fun planned 🙂

🤣 ━ I have two more comedy shows to watch, which I hope will serve as a good midweek work-stress (year-end + audit) release.

📘 ━ CPA exam. Ugh!!

🛫 ━ I am doing Run The Tan at the end of the month and babysitting our friends’ daughter (my first babysitting gig!) on the same weekend. #adulting.

Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.

Keep Kultured!   KK.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Previous Story

How Decent Folk Behave by Maxine Beneba

Next Story

Hearty Peranakan Cuisine in Bonding Kitchen Singapore