The Hermit was my card for July, and it read me for filth. Aside from getting sick at the start of the month, the hibernation month somehow turned into the month I left the house the most: two metropolis cities, two regional towns, three book clubs, three sisters, a range of mountains, one hot spring, and an AGM.
Highlights
🏔️ — Blue Mountains, Katoomba and Leura. One road with five Thai places on it, and a ceramic pendant by a local artist that I have not taken off since. Teasing Jik relentlessly about wanting to eat at Three Sisters, the Chinese restaurant. The failed stargazing and the Wentworth Falls hike that more than made up for it. Sanwiye in Katoomba for Korean lunch, brekkie at Bang Bang Bowls, Yellow Door Cafe, before a train into Sydney via Blacktown station.
At Jik’s, the vegan chef cooked Japanese food, we drank soju, and we watched Obsession.
On my last morning, I stayed in bed until late, playing on my phone for my mental health, drank two espressos and ate two plates of her Indomie with chicken nuggets. I left soon after photographing hundreds of recipes from vegan chefs’ cookbooks.
♨️ — A Sunday road trip down with Fafa and a couple of friends to Mornington Peninsula. We met for lunch first at Del Pesto, where I had the duck (so yummy, I will absolutely return) with a glass of Sangiovese. Then off to Alba Thermal Springs. Soak, sauna, steam, repeat, until 6 PM. The sky did something ridiculous on the way out: pink hues, a full sunset skyline and a crescent moon, all at once. Then the most luxurious shower of my life in their fancy change room.
For dinner, we went to Pho Pier in Rye, rated a suspicious 3.5 and chosen only because our usual Ruby Thai was closed. It turned out great. Spicy Pho for Fafa, regular pho for Shobs, combination pork rice, and the best-tasting spicy special fried rice for me.
We stayed the night in Rosebud, in an apartment above a hair salon, decorated semi-gaudily, with a master bedroom containing a jacuzzi and no door between the toilet, the shower, the jacuzzi and the bed. This design boggles my mind. Still, I slept beautifully, because the bed was soft, and the duvet was heated. Also, I had the right amount of (hopefully) MSG-ed rice and wine for dinner, and several hours of hot spring already in my bones.
The next day, we had brunch, where I had forest mushroom toast with a tiger nut milk (new to me), Magic. Then we parted ways and drove back to Melbourne, with one more stop in Glen Huntly for Tambo Ciak to sort out today’s and tomorrow’s lunch and then Qi Crystal for energy recharging.
👩🍳 — The Cook Book Club, July edition, featured Salamati, a Persian cookbook written by the owner of the Salamtea, who also runs Kebabi, that place Fafa and I went to once. I made Fesenjan from scratch, and it turned out as it is supposed to, but I also vow that I will never again pick a recipe with no garlic and no chilli.
I made an acquaintance with an Italian who keeps 700+ recipes in a spreadsheet. He brought rice and lamb. There were two Vietnamese siblings who brought four dishes between them: falafel (yummy), Persian love cake, a tray-baked fish and a cucumber salad. The brother swears by pork cheek and guanciale. A Filipino member brought stuffed meatballs served in a beautiful purple Le Creuset.
Everyone was genuine, generous, kind, funny and inspiring, and I learned a lot and left inspired, as usual.
📷 — I have decided I am old enough to belong to a camera club, so I went to check out one near-ish our place. They are good (I even made a friend, Jen), but I might hold off on joining until I compare them with another one in another nearby neighbourhood. Disclosure: neither of them is close enough to walk to, which then prompts the question, should I start my own camera club in Wefo? I wonder how many people would be interested.
🦞 — Prahran Market. I WFHF Liz’s place one day, met her and baby L at Prahran Market at lunchtime, which I had missed more than I realised. We split the Lobster rolls from Fat Boy and had a Beechworth honey-ginger drink, which we loved.
Then we picked up all kinds of fancy salami from the fancy butcher inside the market, and the truffle one turned out to be the d-bomb. We also bought two cheeses, anchovies and crackers, and went back to hers for work and wine o’clock. She opened a Chianti that she had been keeping for us to enjoy together, and it was so yummy. Then Dainty for dinner; Fafa came; the conversation flowed; and dessert was TodCo doughnuts. I had the Nutella Snow. By the time some of us (myself included) were all pleasantly drunk, we left.
🍖 — We hung out with Peth and her hubby, who were here for work. We went to Paik BBQ for K-BBQ and parted ways, promising to meet at Chindo Londo later this year.
🕗 — Jik and I did an hourly photo project on a random Friday, starting from 8 AM until 8 PM. I will share it on IG soon.
🐅 — Sydney Zoo and seeing King Julian in Sydney Zoo.
Culture Chat
🕯️ — The Bissu, the Bugis priests of Indonesia, are recognised as intangible cultural heritage.
🥄 — “Kerokan is the Indonesian scraping therapy used to treat masuk angin. Masuk angin is not recognised in modern medical terminology, but it persists as a concept, often associated with fatigue, nausea, headaches, and a general sense of being unwell. Kerokan is cheap, accessible, and has been preserved to this day.” takala.ethnic.
🌶️ — Sambal Belacan Ratatouille is a banger.
— Mapping Melbourne’s ‘ghost signs’: ‘It’s become an obsession!’
🍽️ — Fafa and I went on a date to CMD Supper Club: ILUSTRADA for the Bulacan feast, one of the highlights of June. This is my first-ever experience with Bulacan cuisine.
🥻— Dining with purpose – Tamil Feasts, another article about them.
⛔ — The opposite of whatever being cultured is supposed to be: Two men banned from Indonesia after viral Bali run club faces discrimination backlash ⛔ Italian students who sparked outcry over bad behaviour on Bangkok train apologise following fines
Foodie Guide-Y
🍛 — The best thing I ate all month was the Sri Lankan chicken kottu roti from Çuvai on my first day in Sydney. Even the veg biryani, eaten with tempered potato, was too good. I had three servings, then had the kottu roti again later. I cannot stop eating. Later in Melbourne, I ordered kottu roti from MMS, hoping to recreate it, and hated it.
🍷 — New to me includes: My Sri Lankan colleague introduced me to polos curry, the Sri Lankan jackfruit one, cooked by his wife, and it was delicious. I also had my first Marsanne this month.
🥘 — The cooking saga this month, including I made Chilafel for a Gulf gathering at Anj (her biryani was an A+). Mid-month, I air-fried salt-and-pepper tofu with far too much cornflour, and I also made an underseasoned miso egg in the Nagatanien Igamono egg baker. I made a dump-and-bake fried rice in five minutes that turned out okay. I also made kozhi thokku, but it didn’t turn out the way I’d imagined. At the end of the month, I tried my hand at baking a strawberry shortcake at a workshop in Hoppers Crossing. This one at least turned out well.
🍞 — Foodie moments of July: tofu bánh mì more times than is reasonable, warm banana bread slathered with butter (cold chunks of butter on hot toast is the way to my heart), nasi goreng leftovers from Nasi Pedas, nasi padang, a heated frozen tempe dish, and geprek. It was raining and cold, and I wanted a small piece of myself back before going home, so I stopped at Hakata Gensuke and ate at the tall seat by myself. That counted as me-time. A birthday at The Notts, where mulled wine met Peking duck pizza, which should not work but does. At Ilza Essendon, I ordered the pork udon, even though in my soul I knew the chicken udon was the comfort I needed.
✅ — This year, I set a goal to cook 30 new dishes, and I ticked it off in July. Woohoo. Here is the full list (if not for you, for future me to appreciate): Baked Miso Egg, Bihun, CEO’s Easy Cake, Cereal Prawns with Butter and Curry Leaves, Chilafel, Chilli Con Carne, Chongqing Chicken, Coimbature Kozhi Thokku, Dal, Dump-and-Bake Fried Rice, Egg Kalaki, Elle Bachelor Easy Chicken and Green Egg Rice, Fesenjun, Focaccia, French Onion Salad, Garlic Mushroom Miso Pasta, Hunan Pork Stir Fry, Indian Railway Style Chicken Curry, Kalwi-Laxmi Pancetta Aglio Olio, Mango Sticky Rice, Mertabak Tahu, Mushroom Pad Ka Prao, Mutton Chuka, Nasi Goreng Ayam, Pepper Crab Masala, Salt Pepper Air Fry Tofu, Strawberry Shortcake, Thai Coconut Fish, Thai Papaya Salad, Tofu Green Curry, Tom-Ka, and Za’atar Potatoes Salad.
☕ — I need to say this publicly. Australian sourdough is so hard to eat, and I do not know why I keep ordering it. The café at the hot springs sold me the worst focaccia of my life, which looked and tasted exactly like burnt toast, at $5 per single piece. No, thank you.
Read, Watched & Browsed
🎬 — I am obsessed with the Obsession movie premise, action, cinematography, lore and merch (the citrine necklace, quoted in the movie by the shopkeeper as “basically sunshine on a rock”, being a direct result). Mostly, though, it is how relatable the story is. I had a feral hatred towards Bear, who, I realised halfway through the movie, reminded me of the good-guy final boss I regretfully knew from my past. Yikes. I know this is not unique. I am sure plenty of women can relate, and maybe that is exactly why the film has captivated so many of us. It’s surely my movie of the year.
📚 — General book club this month was Taiwan Travelogue. I gave it 3 out of 7. I did not like it. I found the writing is choppy, but that could also be because I was reading it on my Kobo, where the footnotes for each chapter are parked at the end of the chapter, unlike in the book, where they sit at the bottom of each page.
📖 — I also read Strange Girls by Sarvat Hasin for our decolonised book club (we have many types of book clubs), finishing the last few pages over A dozen oysters for $30 (I arrived, seven minutes after happy hour ended, and they still gave me the happy hour price), and red wine at Wine at Barkly.
My thoughts about the book: These are not strange girls. These are miserable girls, mean girls. I did have a lovely conversation about the book, which was better than the girls: I walked into book club with a 6 and walked out having bumped it to 7 out of 7.
🛍️ — I impulse-bought Remember, a small book, at the Paperback Bookshop, because I cannot walk past that shop without buying something. I did not like it, but it is short enough that I might still finish it.
👻 — Fafa, Jik, the vegan chef and I watched Widow’s Bay separately and then discussed it collectively, and it is excellent. The Scaredy Cat podcast called it cozy horror in their commentary episode, so a new genre has officially dropped on my radar. I also watched Undertone (not for me), The Devil’s Mouth, Prey for the Bride, Project Entity, Quarantine 2: Terminal, two seasons of Found and a Toxic Love documentary, plus a rewatch of random horror movies on Tubi while browsing cooking recipes, which I now recognise as the pattern of a tired me.
Meanwhile, on Kulture Kween:
This month, I had Mental Health Recharge Winter Weekend in Sydney; celebrated Christmas in July in the Blue Mountains; pondered How To Bottle a Feeling of A Winter Yurt Stay in the Dandenongs?
Tiny Joys
Basque cheesecake drizzled with pistachio ❤️ blue jumper ❤️ Chakra cleansing spray ❤️ Citrine necklace ❤️ A constant reminder from the universe ❤️ Curly hair ❤️ Drunken nap on a plan-less Saturday ❤️ Etta James on vinyl on rare slow mornings ❤️ Fafa picking me up on time even though my phone was dead and I could not call him ❤️ Fafa saving me Geprek leftover ❤️ Those five extra minutes of sleep in the morning, which hit differently ❤️ A whole bag of gifts from Jik from Corfu ❤️ A colleague quietly chipped in for a unplanned gift and then refusing to be paid back, telling me to have a glass of wine on her because she could tell it had been a though work week. That kind of understated kindness melts my heart ❤️ Korean coat ❤️ Nikki getting me coffee ❤️ Palo Santo spray ❤️ Passion fruit ❤️ Popcorn ❤️ Pisang ❤️ Qi Crystal, meeting Qi herself, the soy chai and the back garden, which I used to seek out a lot during covid ❤️ A rainbow 🌈 Random Ramen rest ❤️ A shampooed head ❤️ The sun ❤️ A colleague leaving as the guardian of office chilli oil ❤️ Tofu bánh mì ❤️ A two-hour nap ❤️ Udon ❤️ Udon and ramen weather ❤️ Unlimited access to the moon in Melbourne ❤️ Watching another train pass mine on a foggy winter evening, lights on inside, fog all around it. I could not capture it, but the image stays with me ❤️ Working from home on a Monday
Time Machine
🌴 — The happenings of this time last year and last decade.
Thank You, Next!
💡 — August’s card is The Magician, and the guided message is creating my own destiny. The Magician is card one of the Major Arcana, the very first move after the Fool steps off the cliff. One hand points up and the other points down, as above, so below, meaning whatever I can picture is the thing I am supposed to go and build. So: manifestation, but the unglamorous kind. Focus, willpower, resourcefulness, and actually using the tools instead of admiring them. After a full month of The Hermit sending me inward, being handed the card of make-it-happen feels like a very pointed instruction. Noted, Universe.
🃏 — I am off to poker night and a biryani dinner with the girls this weekend, so I ought to brush up on my nonexistent poker skills.
🏟️ — Sometime mid-month, Nikki is taking me to my first-ever AFL game, and I have had a jacket ready for months just to debut it.
🧋 — Jik will be here for work and weekend fun. We have yet to cement the fun parts. So far, I am thinking of starting with an 85-degree coffee visit to the Regulars, Indonesian food for lunch, South Yarra window shopping, a Chestnut Tree book haul and endless mulled wine at Joyakiume.
🍴 — It is turning out to be a little Anthony Bourdain month. I am taking myself to watch TONY on Sunday, and the Sunday prior, I am doing the Tony Trail food tour at QVM.
🎭 — I am seeing Chenturan Aran’s Cut Chilli at Northcote with Fafa and Jik. It is directed by Isabella Vadiveloo, who also directed The Supposed To Be. Then, the weekend after, I am going to see The Jungle and the Sea. Two plays in one month. Practically a season subscriber.
🔍 — I will be attending my first-ever Mystery Book Club gathering at the end of the month.
✈️ — My Indian visa is granted, the big trip is on the horizon, and I am both excited and anxious. Oh well.
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