Simon's Peiking Duck Restaurant

Melbs peeps might be aware of a certain institution on Smith St. known was *Old Kingdom*. It's an Old Skool Chinese restaurant that was particularly well-known for its Peking duck which had to be ordered at least a day in advance if you wanted to order it. It was also particularly well-known for the entertaining maitre'd, Simon, aka *Duck Nazi* (go to page 3 of the linked article). It was with much amusement that I found out a friend from uni was his son (hai Schroding!), and it was with great devastation when this friend told me his dad was retiring from the duck business to become an actor. 

A few months ago, Schroding informed me that his dad was bored with retirement and re-entering the restauranting world! Hooray for insider information! And even better, the new place is in Boxy South! Given that Pooey was coming back to celebrate getting a year older while I'm celebrating my departure, we felt this would be a good time to go eat duck. And so we made a family booking and off we went!

Mmmm, slices of duck with that crispy skin

 

The Duck Nazi seems much more relaxed in his mode of serving (he's wearing a t-shirt?!)

But we were still instructed to turn our cucumber and spring onion to 'quarter past three'

Ready for sauce and wrapping

 NOM NOM NOM

The duck pancakes were of course followed by a duck meat and bean shoot stirfry, and finished with a duck soup. We also had some mixed vegetables to up the fibre content. Did it break new culinary ground? Not at all, but it does provide awesome comfort food! In summary, it's pretty much what you got at Old Kingdom but in a much more relaxed (and roomy) environment.  But just like on Smith St., Simon's Peiking Duck Restaurant was pretty packed for our early 6:30pm session so I'd recommend booking in advance and specifying the number of ducks you'd like to NOM NOM NOM!!! 

Moth traps - *WARNING*

WARNING!!!

THIS POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC PICTURES OF DEAD MOTHS IN TRAPS.

I hate moths, they're bastards. They're disgusting little critters who get into your house, lay their eggs and then then die so you end up finding moth bodies here and there if they manage to evade you. But those little eggs hatch into larvae which get into your clothes and chew little holes in them, the little bastards. This is particularly upsetting to me and Pooey because she left some nice (shared) knits in her closet for the summer months, and when I got them out to wear in April, they were holey! Bastards. We use things like naphthalene balls, oak balls, lavender patches etc. to repel them to no joy.

 

A few weeks ago, Mischka informed me about these awesome traps she uses in her wardrobe. They consisted of a small square of moth pheromone located in the middle of a glue surface. the pheromone attracts male moths which then get stuck in the glue. With the males gone, the females can't get preggers to lay eggs! But if they do lay eggs, they'll get traps in the glue as well! It's like a vicious circle of moth death. I ended up purchasing a packet with her - each packet includes two traps, perfect! One for me, one for Pooey.

 

The red spot is the pheromone lure.

 

The trap sitting on top of some knits in Pooey's wardrobe. 

And so three weeks later, this is what we got...

EUW GROSS!!!

  

But on the other hand, at least we know these traps work! They need to be replaced every three months or until the trap is *full*. I'm not sure what defines a *full* trap; it might be related to your tolerance for seeing dead moths.

For Laulita and Basia

I went shopping at Alannah Hill today because 
a) I can't buy it in Europe, and 
b) they were having a 20% off sale.

Now, Laulita and Basia wanted me to go shopping early so I could come back and show them what I got. I wasn't able to do that so here are the photos showing them instead!

Chanel! Bloody Chanel! skirt - this had already been discounted with the 20% on top!

 

Little Posh Frock - clearly referencing that the design is similar to those put out by Victoria Beckham. 

Now, I'm sure there are people who would tell me off for buying these when I will soon be able to buy European clothes. Well all I can say is that at least I didn't also buy a coat, a pair of shoes, and this dress as well!

Movie review - The Social Network

Facebook. A noun, a verb, an abbreviation, so ubiquitous now that to not have a facebook account is almost akin to not having a mobile phone. The Social Network is a retelling of the events leading to Facebook's creation, its  heady early days, and the legal wrangling that eventuated.  

After being dumped by his girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara), Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) goes home and write an alcohol-fuelled rant blog against her that turns into a night of hacking into various pages, and with the help of an algorithm from his best friend Eduardo Savarin (Andrew Garfield - looking sharp in those suits!), to create a website that rates the looks of the female students of Harvard. This site (facemash.com) causes the Harvard server to crash and bring him to the attention of the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer) and their business associate Divya Narendra (Max Minghella), who are interested in making a networking site whereby Harvard people can meet other Harvard people - a kind of elite wankfest. Bankrolled by Eduardo, Mark surreptitiously builds on the idea of the Winklevii and builds thefacebook. As it creeps across the university campuses of the US, it catches the eye of Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), creator of Napster, and it grows along to become what we know Facebook to be today. 

I suppose I could talk about the cleverness of the screenplay - story is framed by the lawsuits Zuckerberg faced from various parties after the fact - as well as providing a form of cyclical storytelling in which various scenes are referenced by later events. I suppose I could talk about the acting (also good). But instead, I will provide an edited transcript of the conversation josh and I had about the movie that illustrates both it's strengths and weaknesses.

Josh says: but yea... saw the Social Network - bo-ring 

Mallymoodle says: really? i thought it was quite interesting, assholes vs. assholes. Except for Eduardo, I liked his suits 

Josh says: I don't know... it was just boring to me. I don't really care to see the extrodinary success of privledged white people, and after a whole movie of talking about how they need to keep facebook cool, and not make any money... they just throw up text in the end that say the guy is a billionaire...The one question I had all movie... about how the hell they were going to make money off of it... they completely gloss over that part 

Mallymoodle says: yeah, eduardo was saying it will make money by advertising 

Josh says: but, I felt like the movie was building up to explaining that ... 

Mallymoodle says: which is how it makes money now - because so many ppl use it now, advertisers pay for the banner space 

Josh says: sure... but the movie doesn't tell you that, bad narrative 

Mallymoodle says: probably because it assumes you're one of the 500million people who have facebook 

Josh says: so what was the climax of the drama?

Mallymoodle says: that he was all alone, and that the girl who dumped him who he said he didn't want to be friends with (and who didn't want to be friends with him) didn't want to be friends with him, even on fb
Josh says: that's the end scene, not the climax - I guess it's supposed to be when they push out Eduardo from the company... and reveal their intentions?? Certainly the lawsuits weren't concluded on screen. Hard to say what the point of the story was. If it was to just say Zuckerberg is an asshole, they accomplished that in the first 5 mins. 

Mallymoodle says: oh, i think it's to illustrate that he became an asshole by disregarding his friend who'd been there for him from the start, and that eventually, sean did prove to be unreliable 

Josh says: hmmm....then... it was weak...
Mallymoodle says: i think it's that the movie is about something that's supposed to indicate who your friends are, but he ultimately disregarded his friend/s until he had no true ones left 

Josh says: I think they should have focused on the aspect that all creative enterprises are generated in response to getting revenge on women. They dealt with that a bit... but that was the real intersting part 

Mallymoodle says: but also that a lot of FB friends are *empty* - as seen by his trying to friend the girl who rejected him and whom he retaliated against 

Josh says: because facebook can be such a harsh tool for retaliating against people. That part was interesting to me... but when it focused on the lawsuits and lame friendship stuff... it was just boring... and poorly scripted 

Mallymoodle says: they were trying to use something other than facebook for retaliating 

Josh says: it's interesting to think that facebook is this great tool for denying people access to your world... without actually having to see them face-to-face... and how this guy was having a hard time communicating face-to-face with people... that's an interesting theme, but ultimately handled quiet poorly in this movie

I disagree with his assessment but I can see how he came to that conclusion. After all, how is it really possible to sue someone for an idea? And is such an avenue even possible for the non-wealthy and privileged? Although it would have been nice if they explored Josh's belief that all creative enterprises are generated by trying to get revenge on women. That would have been interesting to see!

So to end, a pic of Eduardo/Andrew Garfield being ejected from the Facebook building! 

 

Whoever was wardrobe for that guy, job well done!

An interesting story and example in storytelling, although not without its faults.

8/10

Eureka!

I've just realised that I forgot to write about doing one of the most touristy things evah in Melbs - going up to the Eureka Tower Skydeck and doing The Edge. 

Located on the 88th floor of the Eureka Tower, or 285m above ground level, the Skydeck allowed some nice views over the city and towards the bay.

 West over the Casino, Jeff's Shed and towards the Bolte Bridge

South over Albert Park Lake and the Bay

East view of the Arts Centre, river, MCG, Tennis Centre, AAMI Stadium, and Botanical Gardens

My incomplete merge of the CBD over the North - I guess I better go back to amend that!

Now, the Skydeck also includes The Edge. The Edge is a little glass cube that extends about 3m from the building, with a clear glass bottom allowing one to look DIRECTLY DOWN from those 285m onto the hard, hard concrete buildings below. I found it very amusing to stand and in the middle of the cube as it extended while watching everyone else cling onto the sides of the cubicle as though it were going to collapse beneath their feet. But in terms of a tourist attraction, I would rate The Edge as up (down?) there with The London Eye. Why? Well for one, despite attracting another fee of $10+ on top of the $17.50 it took to go up to the Skydeck, the amount of time one spends in The Edge is approximately 10minutes max - and you're not allowed to take your camera. NO COOL PICS LOOKING DIRECTLY DOWN!!! Instead they take a photo of you standing on the far side of the wall which then incurs another fee if you wish to purchase, of course. 

So yes, my assessment is Skydeck - yes!, The Edge - no! unless you really really want to.

Footpath Astronomy.

Time's winding down and today I had what will probably be among my last poison pork rolls (fanks Ma!), my last Johnston St. Fiesta (hipsters love foreign culture festivals!), and my last bowl of pho (from Hung Vuong 2 on Victoria St). As I was driving away from Victoria St., I saw something I've always wanted to participate in but never did for whatever reason.

On Nicholson St., a curious sign advertising *Footpath Astronomy* is present on clear nights, near a pub . 

I told Mich I was going to pull over and we were going to participate in it. Her reply, "WTF?! I've never seen this before in my life! This is kinda random!" We were met by Jack, who was nice and jovial, and showed us Jupiter with the naked eye and then down the telescope. It was awesome! 

 Looking at Jupiter (with bonus Jack in the frame)! Unfortunately, I didn't think to try and take a picture down the scope of the planet. I'm not sure if it actually works but I've done it with microscopes so it might have!

Mich's turn to be a hunchback (with another astronomy participant)!

On further questioning, Jack told us that about when he discovered his love for astronomy (high school), when he bought his first telescope (1985, in preparation for Halley's Comet), and recommended that we start off with buying an 8cm telescope or some binoculars to viewing the stars in the northern sky - I'd be able to see the Big and Little Dippers there! He said we couldn't see the moon because it was being obstructed by the pub next door, but when I suggested we could move all the gear around the corner, he apologetically said he didn't want to leave his camera and laptop on the street for people more enthusiastic for free goodies than the cosmos. Ah well.

And Mich's final words? "That was cool! I wanna stand on the footpath and tell people stuff I know when I'm old!"

Figaro 2010!!!

Last night I went and saw The Marriage of Figaro again. It was pretty much the same production that I saw in 2006 except that the cast had changed - this time Teddy was playing Figaro, while Count Almaviva was played by Peter Coleman-Wright. Tiffany Speight was again Susannah, the Countess by Rachelle Durkin, and Cherubino by Sian Pendry.

Figaro is one of my faves (along with Barber) with a cracking plot and so many high points! We all agreed that Sull'aria was our favourite with Speight and Durkin's voices blending so sweetly.

Here's a 1979 production from Florence, with Helen Donath as Susannah and Margaret Marshall as the Countess.

If I had to criticise, I'd put Teddy back in the Count's role as I think he looks and sounds slightly more the part - he's taller then Coleman-Wright with a slightly deeper tone so singing their bits, it was a bit hard to picture him as the servant when he's towering over and out-basing his master. Otherwise, a highly enjoyable and recommended night!

More things I won't miss

Also high on the list of things I won't miss when I go to the colder climes are mosquitoes. 


Just when I think it's cool enough to sleep at night without choking on my own hayfever-induced mucus, I wake up in the middle of the night with those welts on my thighs. After getting up and doing some middle of the night activities to decrease the extent of the Type 1 Hypersensitivity reaction, I spent a good 30 minutes trying to track down the bastard in my room. Given it was now approximately 3am, I had to throw in the towel and try to get some sleep. But then, I think I spent the next hour or so hearing that droning noise before finally collapsing out of sheer exhaustion.


And then I had to endure the itchy at work today! Bring on the cold!!!

Things I won't miss.

Fricken hayfever!!! I'm tired of not being able to sleep! I had been advised to give a steroid nasal spay a go but then found out it's prescription medicine only, followed by the fact it's not recommended for people who suffer nosebleeds.

That brings me to the second thing that annoys me - hayfever-induced nosebleeds that stop me from sleeping! Bastards. 

Things I will miss

When Gnoudesavanes first came to Melbs, he had never tasted the joys of bubble tea . He devoured them with joy and, much to my horror, told me that it didn't exist in France. He then later told me in all honesty that his Taiwanese housemate said that the pearls were made out of tadpoles in Taiwan. I said she was bullshitting him.

But yes! Soon, I will no longer be able to enjoy sweet fruit-flavoured milky tea, or even fruit-flavoured green tea! Or those squishy tapioca pearls. 

And soon, I definitely won't be able to enjoy a milk tea with pearls while wearing a summery dress.

I just need to keep thinking *gluhwein!*  And maybe *champagne!* given how cheap it is in Europe compared to here!

No more mini bottles! Full size from now!

P.S. Yes, I have changed the blog layout and colours. I've been told it's more *me* so I hope you like it!

The most unlikeable person on TV?

I've been re-watching Glee from the beginning of the series right up until the current part of the second season and I must say, it's quite enjoyable. Except for one thing.

I REALLY DISLIKE RACHEL BERRY.

During the first season, her desire to be popular and rule the school, okay that's unlikeable but understandable, given that they're kids. But her actions in the second season such as sending Sunshine to a Crack House so she couldn't challenge Rachel's position as lead singer in the club, or basically saying to Finn that she wanted to be the only thing to make him happy....ugh! This level of insecurity to strangers as well as people she 'loves'...I can see her turning into Mr. Schu's stupid wife. Stupid.

Anyhoo, here's a clip from Glee of Charice sticking it to Rachel! 
 


Also, here's a clip of the Boys' school singing Teenage Dream! YAY!

Daiso!

On Sunday, Pooey and I also ventured out to Victoria St. to get poison pork rolls, a little plastic stool, and to check out the new Daiso store. Now, I had ever heard of Daiso. Pooey explained that it's a chain of 100 yen stores from Japan that sell all items within the store for (naturally) 100 yen, or approximately $AUD1! Now...turns out Daiso Australia are not selling products at an equitable price, instead items all items were $2.80. Still cheap and this crazy cheapness was seen when we visited!

On the way to Daiso, I ran into Carmie's sis who told me that the queue was crazy! Me and Pooey were a bit, "Errr....a queue?!?!?!" and sure enough, there was a queue to enter the store! Pooey's instincts quickly kicked in and she applied her strict shopping principles to the store. It was necessary because, as I observed, Daiso really was like Primmy; crowds of people, crap dropped everywhere, stuff stacked in various places...it was good! And like Primmy, me and Poos picked up lots of random crap that we probably didn't need but combined with the price and general frenzy around us, ended up buying almost $50 worth of stuff. And then ANOTHER queue to pay for the goodies!

 

Pooey, still rich after her shopping spree with cashier queue in the background.  

So what did we purchase? I can't remember what Pooey got but I picked up

• A laundry bag
• A lavender-scented bag for repelling bugs when stored with clothes
• A LED torch on a lanyard
• A mini penlight
• A vacuum-sealing clothes bag
• A photoframe
• A face-washer
• Chopsticks with a case
• Toiletry travel kit

With the exception of the vacuum-sealing bag which failed miserably, I think everything we got may work! Yay for bargains!

Dress poll results and Stakes Day in general!

So for people who were wondering which option I went for following the poll, here are the results!

That's right, I went for the black/white combo accessorised with my frilly parasol to keep even more sun off! At some points we had TV cameramen in our face, I think as a result of the parasol...it was kinda awkward.

Anyway, it was a glorious spring day and a great one for watching the horsies and the crowd in general. 

 

I've never been to Stakes Day before (kids day) but it was so nice and relaxed and not too crowded! We rocked up just after the first race and still managed to pick out a nice patch of land between the 100m mark and finish line - real estate that we wouldn't have been able to walk through on any other race day!

 

 That's right, finish line right there!!!

Now because I was too happy eating the picnic, reading my racebook, placing (losing) bets, watching the horses and then cursing them when they didn't place, I didn't take many photos. To atone for this, here are the few pics interspersed with others ripped from various fb pages! 

 

Racebook reading fail!

 

Dan and Lydia enjoy some champers...

and then enjoys a calippo with Mischka. 

With Nickachu...

 

 And then with Peing, Kasia, K-War, and err...some random guys.

 And so to finish, a great day was had by all and a great evening too as we reconvened to Ratna's place to scoff down more (real) champagne! I even think even sunhater me acquired a light tan before heading off to the dark Bavarian winter!

Der Käse!!!

Dress poll!!!

After a year's absence, I'm going back to the races, and it will probably be my last Spring Carnival for a few years! Now tell me which accessories I should wear with my dress!

White hat and black shoes

 

Black hat and black shoes

 
Red hat and red shoes

 

Lunch! At Cafe Vue at Heide!

As time winds down, today was a hastily assembled lunch at Cafe Vue at Heide followed by a look at the various buildings and poke around the kitchen gardens. We decided to try and get the lunch done early at 12pm. Luckily I was able to get up moderately late and WALK down there so not only did I get a ruvely lunch but I got some morning exercise to boot!
I thought I had pictures of the exterior but it seems I don't so here's to jumping straight to the food! Because we booked, we were limited to the Menu du Jour. Now, some people might baulk at the idea of $55 for lunch but seriously people....$55 for a three course lunch!!! WHICH WAS AWESOME!!!


For entree, 

 

All the others opted for the soft-shell crab and...I can't remember what the green stuff was but it was damn tasty.

 

However because I love liver and sugary bread, I chose the Chicken liver parfait with brioche. 

 

Cute! 

For our mains, we had a bit more variety with our choices.

Rach and I both wanted fish. Luckily there were two fish options on the menu. I had the confit ocean trout with garden vegetables and green sauce. The contrast of the lightly cooked and smooth textured fish with the crunchy and slightly acidic vegetables and sauce - naice!

 

The Sea Bream with beurre blanc and different garden vegetables. Mmmm creamy sauce with the sweet fish flesh *gargle*

The guys being guys, they had the roast wagyu beef with yorkshire pudding and other baby garden vegetables. Rare beef! *thumbs up*

Lunch dessert might seem like an extravagance to some people but really, I don't understand why such deliciousness like our

Madeleines with Lemon curd

 

or pistachio souffle (check out that height!)

 

which Rach enjoyed digging into (P.S. Dave got macarons) 

are limited to being nighttime foods given that it would be much more nutritionally beneficial for us to eat sweeties during the daytime so we can work them off!


And work them off we did! Heide started off the (then) semi-rural home of John and Sunday Reed, art patrons during the mid 20th-century, and a sort of artists commune developed at the site, and it's now a modern art museum (plus awesome cafe). It consists of three buildings; the original weatherboard house - very cool, and currently featuring the works of Mirka Mora, the second specially designed Heide II house that doubled as home and art gallery, and the recent Heide III complex. Some ink drawings by original members of the Heide artistic group, Albert Tucker and Joy Hester were on display in Heide III, as well as an exhibition on the photrographs of Carol Jerrems. 

Admittedly, despite the proximity of Heide to my homie, I haven't been to the gallery in years, preferring instead to poke around the sculpture garden on the grounds and, in particular, the kitchen gardens planted by Sunday Reed which are now by the cafe. It was quite fun walking around the patches trying to figure out what was what. Lemon balm! Also, because the grounds have been kept semi-rural, there were some native wildlife poking about! 

Some local wildlife!