Mooncakes
Sunday October 4, 2015
It's October already. Time has sure flown by this year. There's been plenty to keep me busy and that's probably why things have gone by so quickly. Last weekend was pretty big; we went out for dinner at Pan de Muerto and had some delicious lamb shanks. Uncontent with the amount of food, we went to Enigma for some cake and decided it would be a great night for karaoke. So it happened! Tim, Will, Mana, Hannah, Nicola, Victoria and myself bundled into a little room at K Zone on Wakefield Street and sang to our hearts' content, finishing triumphantly with Let it Go!
On Saturday, I was at the Sprig and Fern for a mini-mooncake celebration and Wei's two year anniversary in Wellington. And of course the next day, I did my regular mooncake festivities and cooked for a big group of people, with the usual menu of fried tofu, roast pork and roast duck. Probably cut it a bit close in terms of the amount of food, but people seemed happy with what they got, so I'll mark it off as a success. It was good to celebrate with friends when I couldn't celebrate with family.
Work has been busy, and we are rapidly approaching a "drop dead submission date" of October 9th. There's still a bit of work to do, but I think we can make it. It'll be tight though, naturally, as all things usually are. Hopefully when this is done, I can let people know what ~secret things~ I've been working on.
Posted by Jeremy at 6:49am on Sunday October 4, 2015 :: 0 comments :: 
September Birthdays
Wednesday September 23, 2015
The NZHerald posted an infographic detailing the distribution of birthdays in New Zealand. It turns out that September is the most popular month for birthdays, and sure enough, I've been up to Auckland twice in the last week to celebrate two birthdays. Both were very special occasions and good times were had by all. For my step mum's birthday, we went to Chiko's out in Lincoln Road for dinner; for Mat's birthday, we were at Snapdragon on the water front. It was good to catch up with family and friends alike over the two weekends.
Work is getting busy now that we have some hard deadlines. There's something exciting thing on the horizon that I can't publicly reveal at the moment, but when the veil of secrecy has been lifted, I'll write more about my experiences and where I've been.
Though Wellington on a Plate has finished, the foodening continues. We started the month off with a big steamboat at Jordan, Mike and Mana's, then headed to Dianne's for a flat cooling party. Six people bundled into my little car - we stuffed Philip in the boot and he wouldn't shut up for the whole journey. This weekend is Mooncake Festival, so I will be organising yum cha on Saturday and then cooking up a storm on Sunday. I've got my favourite pandan mooncakes ready to go! In addition to it being a supermoon this weekend, there will also be a total lunar eclipse visible from Europe and Africa - a very auspicious event for the mid-autumn festival!
Posted by Jeremy at 11:55am on Wednesday September 23, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
Another Action Packed Weekend
Tuesday September 16, 2014
I felt so tired after last weekend that I was in need of another weekend to recover. Yesterday I woke up at 6am and fell asleep again, only to dream that it was a public holiday. One can only imagine how disappointed and frustrated I was when my alarm clock went off to remind me it was a Monday. It turned out Monday wasn't too bad afterall, apart from a visit from senior Labour Party candidates - David Cunliffe, David Parker and Grant Robertson - obstructing the passageway to the kitchen and preventing me from getting tea!
The weekend started off on Friday night at Kazu. Around 20 of us had gathered to celebrate Dewi's birthday with loads of food and loads of alcohol - plates of sushi, soft shelled crab, dumpings, takoyaki, tempura came out in droves and we ate and drank and talked and laughed. Naturally the only way to end the night was a solid round of karaoke! Woohoo!
Saturday morning came too early, but I was eager to get to badminton for a full two hour session. Still getting back into the swing of things, but have definitely retained some tricks from seven months ago. My back seems to be holding up more and more, especially with a bit of help from painkillers, so hopefully I can return to being a normal person soon. After some baked goods from Aro Bake and a solid nap in the afternoon, I was off to Bryan's house for his birthday celebration, where I caught up with a few people over some drinks and pizza. Good times indeed.
I was too tired to go to church the next day, but I managed to fit in groceries and marketing, before heading to the sauna for a bit to relax my back and left leg. Then it was back to town and off to Josh and Christine's for Mooncake Festival Part Two - another celebration with meats from land, sea and air. This whole process seems to be going smoother and smoother, so maybe I should do this more often? It was a thoroughly enjoyable night with fine company and fine food.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:17am on Tuesday September 16, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
A Spring in my Step
Monday September 8, 2014
With Wellington on a Plate well and truly over, and with such positive feedback from several people, I have decided to formalise the 'foodie' part of my blog in a separate section. It'll function pretty similar to this one, but it'll be focused on food only. I intend to keep it pretty casual and probably only for special occasions or exceptional food experiences.
Wellington on a Plate was a blast. I had an amazing time, dining in 26 restaurants, with 36 people, had 11 meals and 21 burgers, spent $971.17 and enjoyed every minute of it. So good to share my adventures with people who truly appreciate food in all aspects, and I am well and truly blessed to have friends like that - especially the crazy ones who came down from Auckland specifically for this! The Last Supper at Arthur's was poignant, with thirteen people in attendance as well. So amazing.
I played badminton for the second time in seven months on Saturday, and survived, but just barely. My quads are pretty sore from the jumping but my back held up quite well, so I just need to soldier on with some painkillers and keep on trucking. Following that, I met up with Jord, Joe, Jen, Josh and Christine for lunch at Leuven before heading to Escape Mate. In a very similar vein to all the escape rooms that I went to in Malaysia and Singapore, Escape Mate is nestled on Johnston Street in Wellington CBD, opposite from Leuven. There's a single puzzle room inside a vault, but another room is due to open soon. It was an intense afternoon, and we got out with 1 min 48 secs to go, but managed to break a bottle used as a prop in the process.
I've been playing Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright for 3DS too, and just finished that last night. Fantastic game, great characters as always, but I felt a bit let down by the ending and really missed the ability to yell ~OBJECTION!~ into the microphone. I think the writing is much better in Phoenix Wright games - you become very attached to the characters and it's clever how particular storylines weave together and intersect at the last moment for a dramatic finish, and that was missing in PL vs PW. Nevertheless, the game has amazing production quality - absolutely loved the artwork and character modelling, and so nostalgic hearing familiar themes again, especially Investigation ~ Cornered and the Turnabout Sisters.
And finally, yesterday, I celebrated Mid Autumn Festival by cooking my annual mooncake festival dinner, with roast pork, deep fried tofu, Thai prawn salad and lettuce wrap, and of course my favourite pandan mooncake to finish the meal. Yummo!
Posted by Jeremy at 9:46am on Monday September 8, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Mooncakes
Monday September 24, 2012
It's that time of the year again. That one where my inner child squeals in delight as all the Asian supermarkets begin stocking all sorts of delicious mooncakes - white lotus, red bean, pandan and durian, in one yolk, or in two for a teensy bit more money. My choice this year was the Golden Emerald 1 Yolk from Restoran Oversea in Malaysia. True to its name, the rich emerald-coloured filling is made possible by the intense pandan flavour - with hints of almond and coconut, and accompanied with a single duck egg yolk in the center of the cake. Yum!
In celebration of mooncake festival, I cooked dinner at the Treehouse.
~ Deep fried tofu with cucumber, red onion, sweet chili sauce and ground peanuts ~
~ Stir-fried bok choi, green beans, baby corn and prawns ~
~ Grilled mussels with cheese and bacon ~
~ Roast duck garnished with cucumber and tomato ~
~ Lettuce wrap with minced lamb, capsicum, baby corn and bamboo shoots ~
Charlotte was in charge of dessert:
~ Mango pudding garnished with fresh strawberry ~
~ Golden Emerald Pandan Mooncake with One Yolk ~
Everything went according to plan and the meal was a huge success.
Let's see... I had a sunny weekend up in Otaki, went to Wellington on a Plate with Mel at the Boulcott St Bistro, I've been playing a few games on my Sega Mega Drive, I went to the Japanese Festival at the Town Hall, I've eaten a few KFC Double Downs and had Hot 'n' Spicy, went to see Jeramiah "Module" Ross perform the Shatter soundtrack live at the San Francisco Bath House... and I've also been quite busy at work. Two more weeks until Beta >_> The game is shaping up to be pretty good and I'm proud of what we've done. There's still lots more work to be done and various aspects of the game still need some tightening and polish. I guess we'll be ramping up efforts closer to our deadlines to try and cram things in.
Oh and I've finished uploading all my America photos and just added photos from my springtime photodump.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:08am on Monday September 24, 2012 :: 0 comments ::
Pokemon Black and White
Sunday September 19, 2010
The ROM of the Japanese versions of Pokemon Black and White finally leaked on Saturday morning - I was anticipating it leaking on Thursday but it appears that /vp/ had failed me.
So with that, I have been busy hacking away, trying to understand the various structures and data in the game. With Stephen managing the Psydex code and database side of things, and Mike trawling other sites for much needed contextual information, and of course the miscellaneous help from #psypoke, we've been able to get a lot of information up on the site in the past two days (of course, not everything has gone as smoothly as it should have, but oh well). Kudos to all who have helped!
Last Monday, I suddenly had the urge to eat moon cake, so I looked into various Asian supermarkets to see what was on offer. We happened to do a flat shop at Pak'n'Save Kilbirnie that night, so I checked out the Asian place next door. Unfortunately, they had sold out of the lotus paste with egg, but I decided that I would try a different kind of moon cake - one I had never tried before.
Pandan moon cake! So goooood. I love moon cake.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:16am on Sunday September 19, 2010 :: 0 comments ::