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 :: 
Fooding, So Hard Right Now
Sunday August 17, 2014
Wellington on a Plate 2014 has begun!
I've organised a team of foodies for the 17 days of this amazing food festival celebrating the region's finest produce and beverages. I've got a meal planned for every day, some times two in one day! We were at the Bangalore Polo Club at lunchtime on Friday, and Le Canard on Friday evening, and Duke Carvell's today for their amazing Double Down burger.
Yesterday I went out to Kilbirnie to look at the zephyrometer that had been struck by lightning, and spent some time at the sauna for my back. I picked up some pandan mooncakes (yay!) before heading home and meeting Dale, Jordan, Rob, Jill, Nic, Ian and Joe in town for some drinks. What was supposed to be a pretty low-key event turned into some pretty exhilarating shenanigans - we tried to get tables at Plum, then Hummingbird and Monsoon Poon as a random Wellington on a Plate venture, but all three places were jam-packed so we ended up having pizzas at One Red Dog, then dessert at Strawberry Fare (I tried their newest addition to the menu - a caramel, chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake!) and finally some more drinks at the Library. Such a great night out with friends - truly blessed to have such an awesome group of people to hang out with!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:10am on Sunday August 17, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Thunderbolts and Lightning
Thursday August 14, 2014
We had a sudden yet exciting hailstorm hit the city around 2.30pm today. Friends at Weta had started posting about a hailstorm hitting the Miramar Peninsula just after 2.15pm; sure enough, around five minutes later, the CBD bore the brunt of a cold snap, with hail falling in the inner city and some rather dramatic displays of thunder and lightning. We learned later that the zephyrometer - the large orange needle in Kilbirnie - had been struck by lightning and blown apart!
Speaking of the cold and storms, I was at Ants and Jo's leaving party at the ever classy Blend bar. Great to catch up with people there, but the highlight of the night was letting it go in karaoke. I was wanting to go home at midnight but couldn't resist following them to the new karaoke bar next to the Lanes bowling alley, and I was enthralled to see they had the Idina Menzel version of Let It Go there. And Let It Go I did! Amazing. Despite the late night, I was able to make it to church the next morning - just!
I had dinner with Tak and Loic at the Steer and Beer last Friday before heading to Wei's house to socialise a bit and observe some Monopoly Deal (was too stubborn to play), and saw Guardians of the Galaxy at the Gold Lounge on Sunday (could not go back to the pleb seats!) The Baking Competition pies were fantastic and the next challenge is eclairs! It's been a busy week but Wellington on a Plate starts tomorrow, and it's going to be mega.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:06am on Thursday August 14, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Suddenly August
Thursday August 7, 2014
I was up in Auckland last weekend for May and Norman's wedding. Awesome to catch up with my KCC crew and even more exciting to see these two be married and to celebrate with them over a fantastic meal at the Cube on Swanson St in the city.
I got to see my two nephews - the older one is as giggly as ever, and extremely excitable, the younger one we call fei jai because of his cute chubby cheeks! They really do grow up so fast and I really wish I could see them more often. I also took my parents to this amazing restaurant called Chikos on Lincoln Road. The chef there is Filipino but trained in French cuisine and his food combines contemporary flavours of Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Japan to produce some truly delightful and inspired dishes. I was blown away by the immaculate presentation of each dish, as well as the freshness of the ingredients and the exciting, unique taste of the meal. Definitely one to visit again in the future, and for $30 per main, a very reasonably priced one at that.
This week has been pretty busy too. I went for yoga again on Monday but felt so horrible afterwards that I'm probably just going to skip the last two classes - I ended up having some shooting pains down my leg and it was so hot and humid that I felt like I was going to pass out. I've just come back from Luke's birthday celebration at the Lighthouse Cinema where we ate an Adventure Time cake and saw Princess Mononoke.
One more week until Wellington on a Plate! Organising people together for this is worse than herding cats, but I'm sure the negativity will melt away once I get some burgers in my mouth. This week's baking challenge was a vegetable cake - a cake with a vegetable as the primary ingredient. Our bakers pulled together with pumpkin, beetroot, zucchini, mushroom (ugh!), onion (ugh!!), potato and rhubarb; huge congratulations to Jules and Tim for their contributions to the challenge - next week's is pie!
Posted by Jeremy at 12:08pm on Thursday August 7, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Awkward Poses
Wednesday July 30, 2014
I went to yoga for the first time in my life on Monday.
Then I went again today.
Both times were awful. I am unfit and inflexible, and my hamstring injury was not contributing to my general well-being. It is something I want to try and like, because I know it will be good for my joints in the future and that it will strengthen my leg to prevent injuries like that from happening. But it is a very steep hill to climb and I am having a very bad time.
I spent most of last week cleaning and packing for my big shift 20 metres away. Everything went pretty smoothly, thanks to some help from Wei and my new flatmates. Though my leg was starting to give me some serious grief, I was able to rest it often enough to persevere through the whole day and get everything shifted in. After a trip to the Southern Landfill on Sunday, it all started feeling settled again. As a bonus, Vodafone sorted the Internet out on Saturday so I was able to get that all connected with my new powerline adapters to my desktop. Home is where the Internet is.
We were at the opening night of Mexico on Dixon Street for Jill's birthday and at Dragons for yum cha on Sunday. Then on Monday was the first bake day for the Wellington on a Plate Bake Club - I'm the co-ordinator for two teams at work who are battling it out to be PikPok's top baker. Wellington on a Plate sets a series of challenges each week and it's up to our teams to go out and bake up a storm and bring in the goods on Monday (sometimes Tuesday) for judging. We award points based on appearance, flavour, texture and usage of "Wellington ingredients" and the sum of the scores for each category over all the weeks determines who is the winner and thus who will advance to the Wellington City Bake Off!
The two PikPok teams are Fondante's Inferno and Flour Power: Into the Bread, and the first challenge was slices. There was an assortment fantastic edibles - lemon meringue, honey lemon and ginger, strawberry and chocolate mascarpone, chocolate and star anise, lemon passionfruit and coconut, and almond, peanut and chocolate. Absolutely awesome job by our eight bakers and looking forward to next week's exciting installment!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:40am on Wednesday July 30, 2014 :: 0 comments ::