This will hurt me...

Taken just last weekend as we departed Howrah Beach, Henry looks as if the prospect of the karē pan from the new Japanese bakery down in Bellerive is somewhat more daunting than the rest of us will have it. Don’t worry Henry, they’re delicious !

Hungry? Bellerive Wharf, Bellerive. September 2010. Book Club Friday again already. I finished two books this week, one Vietnamese and the other Swedish (although very much Finnish is tone and content). The first was Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War . Apparently quite popular in Vietnam enough to be banned – this one is a mediation through the Vietnamese War (the second one) from the perspective of a North Vietnamese volunteer. Think of it as a shorter, more disjointed Vietnamese version of The Thin Red Line . Now, I am not sure if it is a poor translation, or if the Vietnamese lyrical style simply doesn’t translate well into English, but this one was a little disappointing for me. The overarching story was remarkable, and many of the vignettes themselves were compelling and nicely drawn, but the stilted, exaggerated and overly florid description does wear you down after a while. I am not sure that the overly elaborate and shifting narrative also helped. While I appreciate an unreliable ...

Henry, Ezra and Jen checking out a wallaby. April 2010. It was delicious. It's Theme Thursday again, and this week another challenging theme: PET . It's particularly taxing as we don’t have any PETs in our house. There is simply no room, in both a physical as well as a metaphysical sense. You see, we have small children instead. Childless couples I know often compare PET ownership to child ownership. Most of them - if not quite equating the relationship - sail very close to the wind in that regard. Having owned a few PETs in my time, and now having racked up a few years of being punished blessed by children; I feel more than certain that the fissure between PET and child is immense. This got me thinking further. What about the advantages and disadvantages of a PET versus a child? Which is better? Yesterday evening, and well into the night, Jen and I tagged teamed off with our two children: her with a repetitively vomiting Henry and I with an intermittently wailing Ezra (I...

On New Years Eve, cranky Hanky enjoyed a large tub of handmade vanilla bean ice cream. Just the trick in the middle of summer!

Here's a felt sandwich that Jen made the boys for Christmas. The choices are limited, but if you'd like some mix of ham, Jarlsberg cheese, tomato, lettuce and beetroot on white bread, and don't mind not being able to eat it; this sandwich is for you! Which brings me to today's Sunday Top Five: My Top Five Sandwich Fillings ! 1) Cheese : I'm a cheese man: Double Gloucester; Wensleydale; Gouda; Cheshire; Provolone; Edam; Limberger; Lancashire; Mozzarella; Havarti; Mascarpone; Gołka; Camembert; Tilsit; Gruyère; Brie; Fetta; Gorgonzola; Red Windsor; Red Leicester; Quark; Chèvre; Ricotta on and on and on it goes. Today however, I can't go past a nice mature smoked Cheddar! 2) Salami : Like cheese, the varieties are endless. I can't look past a spicy Hungarian though... 3) Tomato : fresh from the garden! 4) Lettuce : a crisp and fresh cos will do. 5) Beetroot : you know what they say...

These fish have undoubtedly seen better days. The orange fellow in particular seems surprised at his predicament. Henry and I took this snap at the fish mongers at Mures Lower Deck . There is a cruel beauty in the fact that I live in a place that has the world's greatest seafood , and I'm not much of a fan of fish. That said, a nice bit of squid, octopus and the odd John Dorey, and I'll be right!

What? Have I got something on my face or something?

Here is Henry's hand creeping into the shot, trying to ensure that the little wallaby (still residing in the bigger wallaby's front pocket), gets some tucker. I for one am certainly glad that my babies are not glued to me 24/7. It's bad enough that they can both open doors now...

" Blood oranges, you say...?" Hmmmm...

Here's something different for today's photograph: an Irish stew I made a few weeks back. Modesty prevents me from waxing too lyrical about it's excellent taste. I can, however, share with you a little secret in the cooking. Half the amount of water or stock you put in, and double the amount of stout! I use Cascade Stout , a fine, creamy brew with a hint of chocolate about it. Just the tonic for a shocking winter.

So yeah, there is a bit of dried snot, crumbs and a chunk of ham on him. Granted, that's a bit gross. He's still cute though.

Update. Tonight Ezra ate one whole turnip , and one whole Dutch Cream potato . Henry didn't touch his turnip. However, Henry ate a liberal amount of Polish Sausage and a handful of oven baked potato chips . By my calculations, and at this rate, Ezra shall surpass Henry in size and muscle mass in thirteen months , whereupon he will be the one burying the other in the sand at the beach.

Here are my two little grumblers in the Japanese Garden on Good Friday. The blanket that you can see them sitting on is a little project completed by my lovely wife for Ezra. It's a counterpart to one that has made numerous appearances already that was made for Henry (here is a good one that Ezra has modelled ). I should also mention that Ez's jumper is also the handiwork of the talented Jen. I chose the buttons, which in many respects is the most difficult part. Continuing our endeavour to ensure that Henry and I managed to traverse the world of cuisine before he hits five, this evening we made our very first kugel . For the uninitiated, the kugel is a traditional baked Jewish side dish that comes in all manner of flavours, sweet and savoury. We turned to the humble kugel in an attempt to broaden Henry's mind to vegetables. Our attempt featured sweet potato, carrot, potato and apple . It goes all right. Well worth a crack if they refuse the veggies. If anyone has any sim...

Henry and I had a big task before us today: Playgroup hosting duty. This is not a responsibility that we take lightly, so before the crack of dawn we were out of bed and up to our elbows in flour. Scones were on the agenda, enough to feed a whole battalion of ravenous kids. For many people, a scone is a foreign concept. If you don't know what a scone is, think of quick bread . Easy to cook and tasty to eat. Sweet or savoury. The scone is a versatile beast that is enjoyed by toddlers and adults alike! Now some of the Yanks will know the humble scone as a biscuit, but for our friends in the Commonwealth, a biscuit is a biscuit, by which I mean a cookie, which is nothing like a scone. If we're going down the biscuit [U.S.] route, think of the softer variety and not the hard, Southern variety enjoyed with gravy and squirrel ragout. For those pirates or veterans of the British Navy amongst us, this southern biscuit is really tack, specifically hard tack. A bannock might get you clos...

Much like the time I found myself stuck on a borrowed bike hurtling down the hill with no brakes, I discover that it is again time for Theme Thursday ! And what a theme it is! As you may know, I have two sons, dear Henry [above, at seven months] and sweet Ezra [below, also at seven months]. Both are wonderful young men, kind, thoughtful, emotionally manipulative loving. In many ways they are alike: big strapping lads capable of powerful kicks that would put a bucking bronco to shame. They are also, it must be said, quite different. Henry is, shall we say, very naughty challenging all of the time occasionally. Strong willed, aggressive, prone to random acts of violence exuberance, he is trouble loud a delight. Ezra is a little more laid back. More a smiler than a fighter, he's like Jimmy Buffet sans the Hawaiian shirt. Although he has the grip of a Polish washer woman and capable of blows that would put most current American heavyweights down inside two rounds, he exhibits a...

Television ads are a very sparse feature of the Ads That I Like feature on this blog, primarily because they are always disappearing from YouTube. That risk aside, like the glorious Estonian Soviet-era ad featuring MEAT MEAT MEAT , I can't resist including this pearler from that place of supreme oddity, Japan. What is the first thing that you think when you hear the word noodle? Why this, I'm sure! Man those Japanese must have some pretty cool drugs...

I honestly don't know what these vegans are on about sometimes, there's no shortage of animals delighted to volunteer to be eaten . They're just killjoys. Who are they to take away the one thing that these upbeat beasts love so much?

Is there anything that says AUSTRALIA more than a little bloke chomping down on broccoli and potato? I doubt it! For the title of the previous post, I decided to run with the very famous observation of Samuel Johnson, but in reality, I am inclined to to agree with Ambrose Bierce's observation some century or so later: In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first. The idea of being intensely proud of one's country is always one that has interested me. Now, I like Australia, a lot. I think that it is the best place to live in the world. I think that we have the best food, (plenty of) the best looking sheilas, the best beaches, the best sharks, crocs and easily the best poisonous biting and stinging things. So, you know, we've a lot of things to be proud of. But what we've seen appear is a sort of oddly quixotic yobbis...

I realised that I have failed to post anything regarding Henry's birthday presents and his new found vocation. Let me correct that immediately! As you can see in the above photograph, on the morning of his birthday, Henry awoke to find his father almost complete in the construction of his very own stove! Inspired by the work of Jamie Oliver, although much more similar in temperament to Gordon Ramsay, Henry (or Henri as he now insists on being called), has turned our living room into his own little Hell’s Kitchen . Barking orders left, right and centre, Henri has been churning out some rather fine examples of the culinary arts for the past week. As any follower of haute cuisine will doubtless already know, the stakes are high in the modern, ultra competitive world of cookery. After less than a week, La maison de Henri has already picked up not one, but two Michelin stars. He’s been invited to compete in the world famous 料理の鉄人 (more commonly known as the Iron Chef) and has two...

Here we have an advertisement for Ovaltine from 1945. Personally, I think that they should resurrect it, holus bolus and run the bugger again in 2008! Think of the publicity! Think of the extravagant song and dance routine that you could roll out for TV spots! Tie in a sports star endorsement (Ian Thorpe?), and their work is done!