Honeymoon: An Australian Farewell

Throughout our stay in Australia, we were constantly operating on a lack of sleep. To catch up adequately would have required a good day's rest, but time was precious. I'm really looking forward to one day having a holiday where we can just wind down and relax and do absolutely nothing for a few days. But I would probably end up spoiling it by working out a way to do something constructive.


Hong's mum prepared a feast for us one night. She's an excellent home cook and makes really good Chinese soups. Cooking in a restaurant and at home are two very different things. In a restaurant, everything is prepared and at your fingertips, but at home you've gotta do it all yourself.

And with a comparably less-exciting wok flame.


I never thought much of cheese when I was in Australia, but I do like a bit of gorgonzola from time to time. Koreans are starting to open up a little more to cheese these days, but they put some shocking stuff on their pizzas. Pizza cheese in Korea is a white rubbery synthetic polymer with cheese-like qualities.

Forensic scientists would have a difficult time identifying it.


This is Hong. He and I go way back to 'lunchtime chess games in the school library' days. Hong is a top bloke, and is the kind of guy who would remain calm if you rang him to tell him you crashed his car. Recently he's been getting into photography and bought himself an Olympus faux-vintage camera. It looks like an old school film camera, but it has a digital soul.


Here's Hong showing his brother and Vu all of the different aspects of an Olympus with a 14-42mm kit lens.


We ate dinner with some old friends at the Nu Thai restaurant in Adelaide Chinatown one night. It's a pretty small place and I don't think it really qualifies as a 'town' per se. More like a ChinaAlleyWay.

From left to right in the photo above is Cherry, Vu, Yeung, Hong, Me, Heather and three quarters of Mai*.

*Depending on which browser you are using. Firefox chops off the photo to make it fit, while Google Chrome extends it into the sidebar.


After we had some pretty good Thai tucker*, we went back to Hong's house to drink some wine. Australian wine is cheap and generally of a good quality. We used to drink it a lot when we were younger because it's classy and doesn't make you feel bloated like beer does. Back in the day, I used to walk to Hong's place and we'd down a few bottles and talk until the early morning hours. Then I'd stumble back home and wake up around midday.

And hey look everyone, Yeung's holding a teapot.

*Tucker (noun): colloquial Australian slang for 'food'.



Here are some photos of us from the 90's, when we were teenagers. All of our ex-girlfriends are there too. It's funny to think back to those times and remember how much we thought we knew about the world.


Once upon a time I used to be a raver. Techno always struck a chord with me and I enjoyed a self-awakening during the raving years. Although you'd never tell from looking at my clammy skin and lab-weary figure nowadays.

If you've never been to a rave party, it's something you need to do at least once. I guess it's not everyone's cup of tea though.


And it's good to see that at least some of us haven't lost our groove. Hong once invented his own personal version of Tae-Bo, known locally as Hong-Bo. It had a small following of around seven guys, at its peak.


Hong's dog, Pow-Pow, is a finicky creature. He doesn't get along with strangers and will often take a bite at most people. I used to pat him a lot, back in the day, but he still took a while to recognise me. He didn't like Heather so much though. One night, Heather came back a little tipsy and wanted to hug his face. Pow responded with a loud bark and an open-mouth charge, leaving a scratch on her temple. Heather passed out for a good 10 seconds.

He has a habit of staring at you with an eye-of-the-tiger look.


Korean barbecues and Australian barbecues are similar and different to each other. Both involve socialising with friends, an unhealthy amount of meat and an association with alcohol. But Australian barbecues have sausages. And that fact alone is what makes them superior.

Especially when Yeung is cooking.



And this is Hong's mum. As an adolescent boy growing up, I often ate her cooking and benefited greatly from her kindness. She's a pretty popular figure in our social circles back home and has a very loud but friendly nature.

"LEE! You EAT? My cooking, you EAT - VERY NICE!"


On our last night in Australia, we had a few friends over at Hong's place and had some catching up to do. We used to be a little naughty in our younger years, so it's good to see everyone grown up and getting it all together.


Heather decided to get an Australian haircut for the occasion.


Overwhelmed by the courageous trend-setting by Heather, Hong was inspired to do the same.


And even old Pows got in on the act.


Yeung and Damien found it easy to entertain Mai. They were demonstrating how to pose for photos in a natural way.



It wasn't long before the first casualties of the night appeared. Hong soon performed his trademarked Sleep-in-the-Chair manoeuvre, possibly due to the fact that Mai overspiked his drink with a cocktail of rocket fuel.


This is Damien. He normally goes by the name of Damo, or D-Mac, or according to him, Polish Legend or Polish Hero. He's a very funny guy and a good friend. In this photo he's allowing an exclusive viewing of his underwear for the LKB readers. He only does this on very special occasions.

If you look closely, you can see the authentic D & G sign.


Here's the aftermath of the night. In Australia you can recycle bottles for money. Back when I was young, it used to be 5 cents per bottle, but I think it's gone up to ten cents now. Korea has a very comprehensive recycling program that is embraced by a large percentage of the population.



And then all of a sudden it was time to say goodbye. With only 6 nights in Australia, it did feel as if we were leaving a little early, but that's life. The two little kiddies in the photo above are Mary's daughter's offspring. I forgot their names.


Here's Dad and his partner, Mary, with the two little kiddies. Dad babysits them a lot these days.


And my buddies came to see us off too. We had a good time in Australia, due in no small part to the warm hospitality of the Ho family.


The trip home was fairly relaxing. In between bouts of being woken for meals, I watched quite a few interesting documentaries. The on-board entertainment systems these days have a lot to choose from.


And near the equator we saw this sunset out of the plane window. I guess that the effect is due to a higher altitude.


During our quick stop-over at Hong Kong airport, we decided to spend our last foreign money on a 3am laksa. It'll be a long time before we get to eat one of these again.


And I have to admit, I was looking forward to getting back home a little, and to a predictable routine again. Travelling is exciting, but on a tight schedule it's also draining to the point where you look forward to sleeping in your own bed again. We arrived back as newly weds in Seoul around 8am in the morning. But the honeymoon was still great and it was a long overdue holiday for the both of us. Catching up with old friends reminded me why I need to return home one day. It was also a good beginning to married life, which is going well.

Since then we've settled in nicely. Our honeymoon was nearly two months ago now, but it's taken me this long to catch up on all the blogging. From the next post onwards, we're back in Korea again. See you soon!

Honeymoon: Foods not Found in Korea

Before even setting foot in Australia, I had already planned out a mental 'to-eat' list in the weeks leading up to it. Most of the foods on it were Chinese or Malaysian, with a couple of pies thrown in for good measure. Some people eat to live. Some people live to eat.

I just eat.

If you're wondering what's happened to the photos, well I've taken some good advice from Chris in South Korea, who suggested I use Flickr to upload photos, and then link them to my blog. So that's what I've heeded, and things are turning out well. Now the photos are clearer and bigger, and I also get an unlimited amount of photo space that I never need to pay for. Thanks Chris!
In the photo above are steamed scallops with ginger, soy, spring onion and coriander. It's a simple recipe but never fails to impress.

We went up to Marion Shopping Centre for lunch to visit my old workplace. Marion is owned by the richest man in Australia (Frank Lowy) through the Westfield brand, which is now the biggest operator of shopping malls in the world. My old boss told me that he came to eat in our restaurant on opening day.
The best thing about working in a shopping mall is that it's convenient to pick things up on the way to work.

And here's the kitchen space where I used to cook. Back in those days, I could cook three different dishes in those three woks, simultaneously. These days though, I'm limited to a little gas burner and a tin saucepan in our dormitory. Wok frying is a fun thing to learn, if you don't mind getting burned every once in a while.

This is our updated menu. I can cook pretty much all of the dishes on this, and I've cooked some of them over a thousand times. Impressed yet?

I hope so.

In the top photo is one of Casuarina's Signature Dishes™, called Singapore Fried Noodles. Jimmy came up with that specific recipe, and it's a little different from the authentic ones. The bottom photo has a char kway teow and a vegetable stir fry.


And here's Heather and me with my sister, James Tan (the current manager of the restaurant), my dad and my brother. If you're in Adelaide and heading to Marion, eat at the Casuarina Restaurant. It's to the right of the cinema steps and is actually the largest traditional Malaysian restaurant in the southern hemisphere.


This is the carpark for the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. I used to park here during my undergraduate years at university, because it's a lot cheaper than parking by the Torrens. On many a lazy afternoon, I would come back this way and relax in my car for a while, pondering the complexities of adolescent life before zooming off for my night shift.

Quiet moments of reflection can bring welcome pockets of clarity, if you do them right.


Adelaide is very small and very quiet, when compared to Seoul. The city centre is laughably cute, and has about the same number of buildings as my current university. Still, it's one of the best places to grow up in and I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else.


Here's Heather standing on some blocks at the Festival Centre. It's a part of the modern art installation they have there, and I've never worked out what it's supposed to represent. I think they look a bit like the exhaust funnels of cruise ships.


Mum invited us for dinner at the Adelaide Hyatt, which was incidentally opened by the same Peter who is running the L'Arc in Macau. Hyatt buffets are pretty good, and they get extra points for having fresh oysters. The best oysters in the world are from Tasmania and Coffin Bay.

In my opinion, anyway.


And there happens to be a very good Vietnamese beef noodle shop across from Regency TAFE, called the Yen Lin. I used to come here a lot after a long night drinking.


The restaurant is pretty busy these days, and like many Asian diners in Adelaide, the questionable service is more than made up for with delicious food. Waiters in these places will come up to you with a notepad and pen, and blurt out "WHAT you wan?" You tell them, and they go into the kitchen, having never made eye contact. You could have fluorescent green eyes and they'd never notice.
But sure enough, 5 minutes later a delicious bowl of steaming noodles comes out and you're making a mental note of the restaurant's location.


This is what beef noodles should be served with. Hoisin and Sriracha chilli sauce on the side, with copious quantities of Thai basil, lemon, beansprouts and coriander. At this point in time I will refrain from pointing out the numerous indictable offenses regularly committed by Korean beef noodle restaurants.


On the left is fresh coconut juice and in the middle is Vietnamese filter coffee. It's quite strong and is served with a layer of condensed milk on the bottom. You stir it up and add it to the cup with ice in it. After a few of these, you'll be resembling some sort of fusion between a meerkat and a hummingbird.



Here's me, waiting for my beef noodles. Three years is a long time to wait.

See, I already poured my sauce in the sauce holder.


Combination beef noodles are called phở đặc biệt in Vietnamese. You need a couple of awkward diphthongs in there if you want to pronounce it properly, but most of us survive by using the word 'fur'. It's simple, pure and delicious.

And it should not have a side of kim chi.


Heather thought the noodles were quite appetising. But what often happens in situations like these is that I hype something up way too much beforehand. So anything less than an out-of-body experience is going to disappoint. I really need to stop doing that.


Another thing I hyped up a little too much was Adelaide's nice weather. When we got to the beach, it was about 14 degrees C.

Oops.


Glenelg beach is a nice place to visit in the warmer months. It's also a focal point for New Year's Eve celebrations, with fireworks and large crowds. There's a tram service that goes from here to the city centre, and my uncle once had his wedding party on it.


Here's Heather wearing my jacket on the end of Glenelg jetty. The purpose of a jetty is to allow people to walk on them and peek into fisherman's buckets to see if they've caught anything.

And then we ask "Caught anything mate?", even though we know the answer. It's all a part of being an Australian.


Heather and I played the poker machines in the hotel on the right. We like to dabble with statistical improbabilities, from time to time.


Oh, and fish and chips. My United Statesian friends in Korea often wonder what's so good about fish and chips. That's because they have nice Mexican food available around the clock.

Somehow I don't think fish and chips would be as fun to eat if they didn't come wrapped up in an unnecessary amount of paper.

And when you unwrap any paper bundle on an Australian beach, the birds slowly begin to circle the sky.

Or hover, squawk and chirp, as the case may be.


Having learned my lesson from reading The Birds, by Alfred Hitchcock, I hastily decided to share the bounty with my feathered friends.


These days, the seagulls take the chips right out of your hand, which is something that they never used to do. It's funny because if you outstretch your arm with a chip, they hover in the air for a little while and you can see them hesitating. In their minds I can imagine a whole lot of IF/ELSE statements working in overtime.

That's all for me this time! One more honeymoon post, and then we're back in Korea.

And I hope you like the new photo format.