I’m gonna need all the YouTube videos, wiki-hows and free lessons from friends to get me through this.

I have never had a music lesson in my life. I do not know how to read music sheets and guitar tabs. I can’t tell the difference between an A or D note.

And yet I want to learn to play the acoustic guitar at my age. So this here post is my personal promise and contract to myself that I will learn to play the guitar by the end of 2011. I just decided to adopt my brother’s old guitar and make it mine one fine day. I had the frets cleaned and strings replaced the following day it arrived in my grubby hands.

I have a more selfish reason to learn the guitar and that is to play “Sunburn” by Muse the pwoper way on an acoustic because I don’t have access to a piano or keyboard so an acoustic is the next best thing. Also it has been the longest and biggest dream of my childhood to play “Eyes On Me” on guitar. This song was my jam and still remains one of my favourite sappy love songs ever to this day. I regret nothing!

Signing off, Jills.

The tennis has landed in Melbourne and it’s blistering hot, sweaty, sticky, crowded, noisy, rowdy, packed, sunburnt people everywhere and I wouldn’t change a thing. It’s my first time attending the Australian Open after living in Melbourne for almost five years now so how could I pass up the chance to experience the AO firsthand when the opportunity came up. The atmosphere at a live match is nothing compared to watching the tennis on the telly. The fans cheering on their favourite players make you wanna stand up and shout, clap, scream and yell all the same. You rally on for your favourite player to do his best and shout, “Come on!” at every chance you get. Even with the sunburn I got and will get in future days, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

I had already attended my first day out at Melbourne Park on 18th January where we watched two matches, one in the day and one at night. So this post is about the second day out mostly at Margaret Court Arena on 20th January.

Allonsy Jo!

Waiting for the Tsonga v Seppi match while slowly getting nicely roasted was mostly well worth it. Mostly worth it because we secured prime second row court side seats just behind a row of Scottish fans waiting patiently for the Murray v Marchenko match in the evening. MCA not being shaded is a crime and so was not allowing the players to challenge calls made by the linesmen because some of them were clearly not called right or not called at all. The Tsonga fans came out in full force and there were a lot of random shoutings, singing, beach ball tossing and wankers calling out to each other being thrown about. It was a good match with Tsonga proving his prowess in three straight sets over Seppi.

A lot of people is a lot.

After a brief interlude and break to get some food and much needed rehydration (I must have drank close to 4 litres of water in one day), we watched a women’s singles 2nd round match before the main event that everyone at MCA were waiting all day for. Andy Murray and Illya Marchenko played great tennis but Andy’s forehands and aces were perhaps a bit too much for Illya to handle. Andy prevailed in three straight sets, partly thanks to the strong fan support I think.

Let's go Andy, let's go!

After the match we stayed back for a bit to see if we could get Andy to sign our stuff. I got my brand-new-tags-not-removed AO shirt that I did intend on wearing it on another day, signed by the man himself. I swear I could almost touch his hair hands him when he came around to me eventually. He said to me to tug on the shirt so that he could sign it pwopa (Muse pun intended). I don’t think I even thanked or congratulated him either as he continued signing. Now if only I can get Rafa’s and Roger’s scrawls on my shirt. In all a good day out at the Open. Just don’t forget the sunblock and hat next time.

Never wearing or washing this shirt.

“You choose *pie* over CAKE! I abhor you.”

“Abomination! Imma gonna de-friend you from Facebook.”

“But cake is so much more awesome, stupendous and luscious than pie!”

And it goes on. The truth is I can never go past a perfectly cooked flaky buttery crust with a surprising sweet or savoury filling. A pie is as homemade as your grandmother’s home cooked supper (or cookies if your gran made some, mine cooked all sorts of tasty and yummy regional Chinese dishes for lunch, dinner and supper during my childhood years that I can’t remember all of its names now.) Of course, a seriously badly made pie can also ruin my mood just the same with mushy or undercooked crust, insignificant and lame pie fillings, too sweet or not sweet enough, too tart, rock-hard pie base, or too liquified fillings.

When it comes to my ideal pie, I almost immediately thought of a cherry pie recipe that I remembered reading a long time ago at Smitten Kitchen‘s blog where I get most of my recipes from including that delectable and awesome pie crust recipe that I’ve used numerous times and has yet to fail me. The pie crust is best made at least a day ahead in my opinion but I skipped the one day resting period and let it chill for 1-2 hours. All because I really wanted to eat a slice of pie yesterday.

My lame attempt at making cut-out stars to celebrate the Christmas season did not bode well for my pie decorating skills. The pie still tastes awesome with its flaky and buttery crust sprinkled with coarse sugar for decoration and sweet cherries for the recent hot Melburnian summer days. Paired with a lemon lime bitter or lemon ice tea, your summer tea treats are ready to be entertained for unexpected guests.

I’m doing something a little different this blog post where I talk about something other than myself. *cue shock and awe* *gasp* This cherry pie attempt is my contribution and entry to Jeroxie‘s and CSR’s Bake A Difference blogging and charitable event to help raise funds for Mission Australia. I encourage you to find a sweet and tart recipe and get on blogging.  If I have time I might contribute another recipe before 14th December because that’s the due date to submit your blogging endeavours.

Click on the cupcake below for the link to the event and more details on how to register your blog before 14th December 2010!

Anywhos, as I hope for spring(s) eternal on this first day of September, a friend recently brought up an interesting point in an email convo where I seemed to prefer spending cash on food than on clothes, shoes or bags of late. I’m not too sure about that but I can definitely say with confidence that I would take surviving on crackers and water for a month if it meant owning several pairs of Louboutins and Prada bags just for fun. Clothes, not so much as I like recycling old stuff and I practically live in my pjs anyway.

Hence I guess the reason for this post; on food blogging, restaurant reviewing and mostly to do with food in general. I’ve always been a foodie as can be told from my slight obsession with a certain show by the name of Top Chef and coincidentally just won the Emmy for Outstanding Competition Reality Program. I’m unabashed about my passion for good food, which are prepared decently, presented beautifully and most important of all, MUST taste well. Of course, tasting well is such an ambiguous and grossly overrated term used by chefs, reviewers, foodies and the regular old public like myself. To me, tasting well is an overall sensory experience of the dish itself where the taste of each ingredient complements each other, have layers of flavour that don’t overpower your palate for the next course, be texturally interesting, and of course be visually appealing as you do eat with your eyes when you’re first presented with the dish. To ensure that all these points are ticked off is no mean feat especially when you’re dining at an upscale and fancy restaurant where everything has to be perfect from the first bite to the last sip of wine.

Running with that, the overall restaurant experience is what makes or break a perfect dining night out in my opinion. From the moment you step into a restaurant to be greeted with a smile, the host leading to your table and the pleasantries exchanged with your waitress, the diners take note of every single detail, which some restos neglect to pay attention to. The lighting, soft music, the clinks of wine glasses and cutlery, table arrangements, ease of movements, view of the dining room, patronage and interior decorations; we take note of all of this even though we may not place it at the very top of our restaurant choice criteria where the food will come out number one every time. We are sensory creatures who like pleasant sounds, engaging people, beautiful environments and an exciting atmosphere of anticipation. This is where I believe that good restaurants ultimately succeed at when and if they tick off all those check boxes in my book.

Recently, I had the opportunity to dine at Cutler & Co. Dining Room & Bar in Fitzroy, Victoria. Cutler & Co. is a fairly established Melbourne restaurant in its own right in the casual fine dining style and scene. Not like the folks at Cutler need any more publicity and recognition but being awarded the Best Restaurant of the Year in the 2011 Australian Gourmet Traveller Awards and Two Hats by The Age Good Food Guide 2011 are totes more than reason enough for you to make your way there and soon.

My dining partner, A (who runs The MSG) and I made a booking for Cutler’s Sunday lunch special where Andrew McConnell and the talented kitchen staff plan and prepare the day’s menu with a focus on fresh ingredients sourced from the local farmers. The idea is to come in, dine with us, and enjoy a long leisurely lunch with good food and company. The menu consisted of several appetisers and entrees to share, which has been set by the kitchen, followed by your choice of main and dessert. And all that for just $69 pp, which is very reasonable.

We were promptly seated by our host in the dining room area that was decorated with gorgeous light fixtures and some palm trees around as well. I actually quite like the palm trees even though I thought it was a bit off with the rest of the decor but I digress. I ordered an aperol with blood orange drink to start the day off light while A went with a coffee. The waitress explained how the Sunday lunch menu worked and I was suitably impressed and excited with the way things looked and started already.

From here on, the food kept on coming and did not stop til desserts arrived. (Note: The dishes described below correlate with the photos above from left to right.)

We started off with fresh Coffin Bay oysters to get our appetites going. It wasn’t the best nor biggest oyster I’ve had (PS: Tasmanian oysters FTW!) but it was a decent palate cleanser. This was followed by cracked wheat salad, labne and barberries. This starter was rather surprising as I’ve never had cracked wheat before and it reminded me of barley and risotto combined together to make this delightfully light and refreshing dish. We promptly finished this and I would definitely go back for more if I remember the name of this dish in future.

Next was the wood-grilled prawns and celeriac remoulade in a tangy mayo dressing. The prawns was quite good and went well with the salad on the bottom. The next dish brought out was carrots, walnut cream and shanklish. (PS: I knew you’d want to know what shanklish was.) I really enjoyed this one even though when it arrived at our table, my first thought was, “Eh? Carrots?!?” But when I tasted it, I went, “Mmm, carrots. And yummy yammy paste thing.” The “yammy paste” was actually walnut cream once I managed to get the proper menu names off A. The carrots were beautiful and had a lovely bite, which paired well with the walnut cream and shanklish. The shanklish was peppery and threw me off a bit but I really liked the combination. A hates carrots but had a try because you simply had to, so I had to take it upon myself to finish the dish. Tried as I might, I couldn’t but it remains one of my favourite of the lunch.

By this time, our stomachs were about ready to implode from too much food too early in the day with two more entrees, mains and desserts yet to arrive. A typically Australian breakie choice at most brunch eateries; avocado and spring onions on grilled bread arrived, following that a terrine of pork with a mustard fruit puree. The avo toast was nothing that remarkable but the next time I make it at home, I’m going to add some coriander on it fer shure. A thought that the terrine lacked flavour and tasted bland but with the marmalade, I thought it was good and was texturally fine, just not as awesome as I wanted this terrine to be.

We were given an interval between entrees and mains, which I am so grateful for, and A even more taking a short smoke break. A chose the pork belly and I the duck leg. The corned duck leg was meltingly tender and crispy breaded skin on the outside which complemented the purple broccoli and creamed leeks. I would have preferred for the leeks to be cooked a little more because it was too toothsome for my liking but paired with the soft duck meat, the dish would have been a textural mess of mush on mush, so I won’t complain too much. A thought the pork belly was good but the skin a tad less crispy than we liked pork belly skin to be. The cavolo nero and pearl barley were good garnishes to the plate. Desserts arrived momentarily where I was about ready to fall into a food coma. A chose the Meyer lemon curd, rhubarb and blood orange granita. I decided to go for the Tomme D’Abondance cheese served with apple chutney, which was a slightly better choice because I very nearly went with the chocolate cake and chestnut ice-cream. The granita was refreshing and a great finish to such a rich meal. I loved the cheese paired with apple chutney and maybe a little mustard seeds eaten with crisp crackers. Not the lightest end to a meal but certainly one of the more memorable ones.

To surmise, I will definitely be making my way back here again for their ala carte dishes at the bar for a different dining experience. I have to say that on a Sunday, the place was full on packed out by 1pm with likewise diners as ourselves who just wanted a relaxing day out. After this meal, I can see why Cutler & Co. are doing remarkably well. With almost perfectly executed dishes, delicious flavours with complementary textures, pleasant service and host, and awesome company, you’ll walk away from this restaurant happily satiated.

Watch out, Attica, Imma coming for you soon!

(PS: Don’t expect this to be a regular thing… yet. This was just an experimental avenue for me to explore food blogging and reviewing a resto. Oh who am I kidding, I’m procrastinating from studying, plain and simple.)

The Diary of an Occasionally Exasperated But Ever Hopeful Reader

Not just the name of mine, and every Melburnian’s favourite book store, it’s the only activity besides sleeping which I wish I had the consistency and time-management skills to do more of.

Try as I might something or other always, always crops up when all I want to do it sit down with a book, any book that I’m attempting to finish at that moment, and I only manage to get through barely five pages in one sitting. I’m not making excuses for myself, it’s just that I really need to make more of an effort to knuckle down and get through those stacks of books staring at me whenever I walk past them in the living room.

Nick Hornby’s works have always been my comfort books akin to comfort food. You know he’s always there, more often than not reads very well and I enjoy every moment of it and you can’t really get enough of him. So when I finally got the chance to read The Complete Polysyllabic Spree (bummed a copy of Alex) I inevitably had to bump this to the top of my reading pile simply because it’s a book about a book lover reading books and the often times exasperation that comes from reading them.

He is so reading my mind in all respect regarding his reading habits, nuances and pet peeves; except that he’s a dude, an accomplished and published author, and I attempt to study finance and accounting while sneaking in that odd reading period.

I’m only about half way through and it’s reading fine so far. There will be a proper review when I do finish it. In between then and now, there is this particular chapter that intrigued me as a reader and a faux writer that I thought I should harp a bit upon. The manner in which he talked about his two autistic sons and the connection with Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time about the tale of a similar but slightly different type of autism that the protagonist in the book have. I have read this Mark Haddon’s book and thought it was a really good and insightful read. In some ways I feel that the two writers have slightly similar styles in the sense that they possess dry humour, wit and the occasional rant but always comes back home to the heart of the story line.

I don’t want to elaborate anymore on this for fear that I might leak a spoiler or two. So go, have a read at it yourself. Either way, I don’t really care as long as you get right on it.

The Polysyllabic Spree is not pretentious, obnoxious and does not pretend to be anything but a book about the joy of reading, buying books and the pleasure of rereading your favourite books by an author who first sees himself as an obsessed reader like any of us who cannot resist walking into any and every secondhand book store, chain book store (cough, Borders, cough), and the small but integral establishment book store that is in every cool city in the world.

Bacon carbonara with bucatini spaghetti

Food IS comfort.

There is no other satisfaction than the joy and satisfied glee I can get from preparing fresh ingredients and cooking them from scratch; no pre-marinated meats please, and serving them up for others to eat and hopefully tell me they enjoy the results.

Tonight was the first time I cooked in months and I have to say it was an almost entirely selfish act because I really needed to de-stress from the first class of the semester this evening. De-stress you say? Sometimes it does provide me that comfort when I want to do something out of routine and let my mad scientist side take over for a second while I go a nuts in the kitchen. Most of the time they don’t work out the way I want them to but in that rare moment of success that I do get the chicken cooked just right, the cake baked to almost perfection without the sides sticking to the pan and making steamed rice the most perfect and fluffiest white rice ever, that’s when I feel and pretend that I’ve reached the epitome of true kitchen goddess. Not that I ever want to be one because I am no Nigella Lawson.

I’m glad the brother enjoyed the bacon carbonara pasta and grilled chicken wings I cooked for dinner even though he thought that the sauce was a tad creamier than he preferred but no biggie. Now the issue of thinking up more and new inventive recipes that I can cook for the two boys in the house proves to be an almost insurmountable task. How many times can I recycle the same five fool proof recipes I have in my repertoire without them giving the boot and ordering take-out.

I love making carbonara pasta because I always have garlic, bacon, sea salt, crushed black pepper, cheese, eggs and some sort of dried pasta in my pantry. It’s quick, easy and who doesn’t love something cheesy, salty, garlic-y and bacon-y. Tossing in some freshly chopped spinach or parsley give it an interesting bite and colour but isn’t necessary and I think honestly spoils the true taste of what cheesy and bacon-y pasta should be.

So onwards and forwards I say with home-cooked meals despite the messy aftermath and cleaning up. The satisfaction, joy and comfort you get from eating someone else’s or  your own home-made dishes can’t be recreated with anything else close to it. Except maybe growing your own vegetable garden and slaughtering the fattened calf for the village feast. But I’ll leave that for another time.

I’ve visited Jungle Juice on several occasions for coffee but it is only on this recent trek that I actually sat down for a meal. The place is tiny as is usually the case of the many laneway cafes and hole-in-the-wall restaurants in Melbourne CBD particularly along Flinders Ln and Degraves St. Despite the crowded and bustling lunch rush hour atmosphere I was fortunate enough to grab a table inside and was greeted promptly with a smile and menu.

The food on offer is geared towards traditional breakfast items that are only available til 11am. The lunch menu boasts a rather extensive one with various filled bagel options, sarnies and soup of the day with a toasted bagel on the side. I had myself the Vego bagel which was filled with smashed avo, rocket, tomatoes, tabasco sauce and mayo. And personally delivered by the chef no less. The seeded bagel was toasted to crisp and crunchy perfection and the ingredients used were fresh and lively. The tabasco sauce added the tiniest hint of tanginess and heat which really lifted up the otherwise heavy avocado and mayo combo. The toasted sarnies, McBagel and BLT appear to be popular items as well and I will definitely give those a go the next time I return.

The coffee was good but unfortunately I’ve had better. This is not to say that you should give this place a pass based on their coffee. The cozy interior and slightly cramped seating area make for a very homey environment with various newspapers and magazines to read should you venture here on your own. The prices are reasonable with the very filling bagel I had as is the coffee. Located in 20 Centre Pl just below Hell’s Kitchen, this place is a bustling yet intimate oasis from the other crowded cafes and restaurant options in the city. That is if you can find a place to sit.

I’ve decided to make this blog a more purposeful blog instead of the rather mundane and monotonous blogs out there where the author just spews whatever random thoughts and rants they are feeling and thinking at that moment in time. You won’t find me mindlessly ranting on and on about the evils of Twilight and the she-devil that is Stephanie Meyer and the devil spawned Rob Pattinson and Whats-her-face. I’ll leave that to Twitter and Facebook.

Instead I’m going to keep the topics of this blog relatively minimal to food, books, fashion and occasionally a personal self reflection post. If I do feel like it, I am willing to extend the categories to movies and music but they just seem too predictable and boring for now.