And Then She Crashed

It is the way of things, come the end of the school year.  I crash, and I crash hard.  It happens every year, beginning with the weekends leading up to me finishing up.  What this means is that daily naps are not-negotiable necessities.  And I am playing fast and loose with the term 'nap'.  Is it really a nap when it lasts 2-3 hours?  Every. Day.

The best possible place to do such end-of-year crashing is surely in Hobart, Tasmania.  When Dh suggested we go away for our wedding anniversary he raised Queensland as a possibility.  Unfortunately I am not much of a summer-loving person so the heat and humidity of the summer months was a huge deterrent to me.  No.....let's head south, I countered.  To Tasmania.  It is one of my favourite places in the world.  Small, quiet, unhurried.  Cool.  Dh has an aunt & uncle, and one of his cousins around Hobart so that's where we headed.

We ate at the Ball & Chain Grill a couple of times because the steaks were soooooo good!  Fish and chips on Constitution Dock and a meal with family were our food highlights.  We had a morning at Salamanca Market, with a cunning plan to get free parking fairly close.  The evening before, we found a little lane-sized street in Battery Point, just behind Salamanca Place with free street parking.  We decided that if we arrived early enough in the morning we should be able to get parking there again, before the market crowds began to arrive.  And we were right!  We took a short stroll through Princes Park and down into Salamanca Market.  Perfect!  We ate breakfast and then wandered through the market and were done by the time it started to get crowded.

Because I have a bit of a thing for Aussie history we also went through the Mawson's Hut Replica Museum and The Tench convict penitentiary.  I would have loved to have visited the Female Factory as well, but you can't spend hours and hours of your time napping and get through all the things you might want to do.  We'll just have to go back.

As always, we came home with a suitcase full of jam from The Richmond Jam Maker, who also happens to be Dh's cousin.  A double joy - visiting with family AND bringing home jars and jars of the best jam you'll ever taste.  The whiskey marmalade is particularly good for breakfast!

All that in between crashing hard and sleeping lots.  Tasmania is the very best of places to do so.  It really wouldn't be a chore to live down there.  Frequent visits will have to do us.  After a 25 year drought we've managed two trips in 12 months!

Asian Grocery Adventures

Our Town is a little out of the way.  In the sense that it takes us half an hour to get anywhere half way useful. You know, to places like a Westpac Bank branch, or a shopping centre, or a Safeway ... oh wait, everywhere else it's called Woolworths ... that has halfway decent stock lines, compared to our glorified milk bar of a supermarket.  Now we don't mind this out-of-the-way life, because it is quiet and peaceful and our air is crisp and clean and fresh smelling.  But when it comes to finding speciality things we have to drive a ways.  On Monday Miss Sunshine and I did just that.

I have always loved Asian grocery stores.  They are such an adventure with shelves filled with exotic ingredients that are somewhat unfamiliar.  And other things we haven't had in years because in our very Anglo area we just can't get things we'd love to have more often.  On Monday we really went in search of Asian green tea, having discovered that I actually like the Asian version.  We came home with green tea, green jasmine tea and oolong tea (because oolong is always our favourite chinese tea).  And as we wandered the aisles we found other things we thought might be worth trying.  The other thing we noticed is that with many things the Asian grocers are cheap.  And I mean CHEAP.

Take the above pictured star anise and cinnamon quills.  These were $1.49 each...which means $1.50 because we no longer of have 1c pieces here.  But still.  A buck and a bit for my 50g of cinnamon.  In Safeway....errrr.... Woolworths (OK, don'tjudge me here...we still have Safeway, the sign on the outside of the stores says so) these little treasures cost $3.39 for just 12g.  Which is why I never buy them - highway robbery!

So as well as the tea leaves I also bought star anise, cinnamon, dried chillis and curry leaves (among many other things!).  Because if you go somewhere and eat something you think you just can't live without eating again soon you get online and find a recipe.  Dh and I adore curry and we had some beautiful curries while we were in Malaysia and I have found a recipe for a Malaysian chicken curry that I desperately want to try.  With roti bread.

I'll let you know how that goes.  If I'm doing really well I'll remember to take photos!

In the meantime, check out an Asian grocery store for spices that does not make you feel like you have to open a vein to pay for it.

Food Lessons from Malaysia

Image Credit

We had a wonderful trip to Malaysia.  The business portion was very positive, and catching up with old friends was so precious.  Discovering that our friends are in professional positions which we will potentially be requiring is a huge comfort.  They are very protective of our interests!

My biggest learning from this trip:  the way Malaysians honour their guests is to take them to places where the best food is served.  It may not be in the most upmarket surroudings, but that is not the most important aspect!  The photo above is of the restaurant at Fish Valley in Semenyih.  It is south-east from Kuala Lumpur and quite a way out.  Our business associates brought us here for lunch, and really, we weren't sure what to expect.  As it turned out, sitting in an open, covered space was perfect.  It rained, and the wind picked up a bit. It was a relief in the heat and humidity that is normal for KL.  And the food?  Brilliant and delicious.  Worth the long drive. 

When we told our friends, the next night over dinner, where we had been they decided we were terribly adventurous and wondered if we were still well.  Not much knocks our strong constitutions off balance and we were well (and continue to be so) over the whole trip.

Also, Malaysian green tea does NOT taste like Australian green tea.  Our green tea tastes grassy to me.  Theirs tastes quite refined.  I ended up coming home with tea bags that were given to me by one of our friends.  She insisted, so how could I say no?  I continue to be delighted by that discovery.  If Dh goes back in a couple of months he will have a shopping list!

And while we were gone our children had a marvellous time with an older cousin and his wife.  None of them were any more sensible than the other, and our children really didn't need babysitting since they are quite old enough and self-sufficient.  Miss Sunshine is 19 and able to transport and organise the others.  But it worked well for balance and their sense of security.  Our nephew and his wife declared they should be glad to come if we needed to travel again.  Our house is much closer to their work, so it was incredibly convenient....not to mention the cousin-party each night!

Suitcase Update:  We took two.  Mine was small, Dh's was larger.  His was a mess, and mine was not.  We were both very happy!