It has been a while since I wrote the supposedly monthly NoNe series ━ , so here I am trying to recap the last three-plus months into a short blog post.
👨👩👧 ━ I spent most of the first two months of the year in Jakarta, WFH, at my parents’. I also attended my cousin’s beautiful wedding, hung out with cousins, and gossiped over Korean BBQ with Cheryl.
🥘 ━ I have been eating so much good food over the past few months, from Amma’s iconic prawn taco to the famous Satay Madura and all other delicious Indonesian food in Jakarta. Then there was a newly opened hot fish pot joint in the city, a new-to-me poke stall near my office called Fish Bowl and an old fave, pasta and pizza at Baby (which was a Christmas/New Year/post-travel/life catch-up/date-night with Liz). Lastly, Fafa treated me to a Srilankan feast at Many Little for our anniversary (where I got blind drunk due to the empty stomach and excellent wine pairings) and a Japanese Omakase at Minamishami to celebrate work-related news, which turned out to be the best Omasake experience we have ever had outside of Japan.
🚋 ━ Back in Melbourne, I spent one weekend morning at the Filipino Pop-up Market, another Saturday eating deep-fried bacon while roaming around the hipster Fitzroy Market and one sunny Sunday celebrating Holi festival with the locals in the neighbourhood.
🏠 ━ Oh, some good news, we finally got our sofa delivered almost a year after the purchase! And with it, we got two more houseplants that felt unrelated but felt like they were. We also hosted a few friends, including Liz and her partner.
📚 ━ During a Bookish stand-up (a comedy show about books and book lovers, if it’s not clear), I realized that I am bad at remembering the titles of the books I read and even worse at remembering the authors. While in Jakarta, I read a few Indonesian books that I couldn’t recall the titles or the authors of.
I have been reading three books simultaneously: No. 91/92, A Parisian Bus Diary by Lauren Elkin ━ I read only when I am on the bus; 28 Questions by an Australian female writer Indiana Schneider (I scored a signed copy at The Sun Bookshop in Yarraville) ━ when lounging in the living room; Lastly, Allie Reynolds’ Shivers is waiting for me in the Kindle making it a perfect bedtime reading.
📺 ━ I thought I was not into period drama, but Bridgerton changed that notion. It’s so good. I finished both seasons in less than a week. I also watched the Korean zombie drama, All of Us Are Dead and got Amma hooked on Korean dramas, zombie TV shows and Netflix.
👩🏽🍳 ━ Early this year, I cooked Curry Leaves Prawn Curry and wrote about it here (Curry Gal). Other than that, I haven’t been cooking much ━ well except for the Biryani I made when my friends came over and the best-to-date garlic butter salmon I made recently.
Browsing History
🫶 Useful Tips for Air Travel During a Global Pandemic 🫶 Most wishlisted Airbnbs in Victoria 🫶 Tabulous Mom 🫶 Safe in Austin Rescue Ranch Fundraiser 🫶 Things I Stopped Doing for Dinner Parties — and 3 Things I Always Do 🫶 ten ways to work with cinnamon 🫶
Meanwhile, on Kulture Kween:
🖥️ ━ I wrote about wanting to find Joy in the year of Omricon, Six Different Flavours of South Indian Thali, eating in a 50-year-old hotel in India, How Nimbu Mirchi is believed to ward off bad luck in the Indian culture and travelling during a pandemic is tiring.
Time Machine
Read more about last year’s happenings.
Next Month
🎂 ━ April is Fafa’s birthday month! We will do Indonesian lunch, spicy hot-pot dinner, and Blackstar pastry watermelon cheesecake (not sharing as requested by the birthday boy).
🍽️ ━ We will also host a grown-up lunch for Fafa’s friend, Paul, who once hosted us while still living in Singapore. I don’t think I will be cooking, though, as it’s a workday; I am excited to see Paul again, repay his kindness, and finally – properly – use our dining table for the first time.
🌴 ━ The last time I wrote NoNe, I told you guys that we were supposed to fly to Queensland but couldn’t because the borders are closed. This time, we discovered that we wouldn’t be able to go overseas on our long-over-due yearly couple’s vacay due to my visa issue (one of the woes of travelling while Indonesian). So, after stressing out for two weeks, we decided to change gear and travel inter-state instead because we needed a (sans-work-laptop) break from the daily grind. Ironically, Queensland is one of our last-minute cheap-flight choices.
Oh well, silver linings and all that, I suppose…
Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.
