Tag: food

Journal Entry #007

Claire @ Coffee with Claire8 Comments

Monday, January 28th, 2019

I said it once and I’m going to say it again… January 2019 is done already?! The first and last month of the year always flies by for me. I can’t believe this is my last entry of the month!

I’m quite proud of myself lately. 2019 has been a great start so far in terms of finally getting around to one of my goals that I always set year after year. And that is… learning how to cook.

Prior to the start of the year, I Googled and snapped pictures of easy, peasy, lemon squeezy recipes and saved them onto my Google Notes app to sort of make an online recipe book. I think of the things that failed in the past was I would always dive head first and get overwhelmed by all these ingredients and cooking methods. I had to realize that even professionals had to start somewhere so I broke it down into easy recipes so I can master the techniques and get comfortable working with different ingredients.

Dan and I sat down to make a weekly dinner plan so we also won’t be tempted to order out or drop by the supermarket and spend $30 on one dinner. The other day, I felt so cheesy that we’re one of those families that have declared Wednesday nights as meatloaf nights.

Shit quality but first time making meatloaf! We followed an easy one pan meatloaf dinner recipe w/ broccoli and sweet potato.

Following Vivian’s recommendation, I dragged Dan to try out Sakura Kaiten Sushi and oh my lord, it’s the best sushi we’ve had since arriving in Melbourne! There was a small line up when we went but it was sooooo worth it. It took me by surprise how cozy and small the restaurant was. Definitely an intimate place to have dinner.

And, did I mention that this is another sushi train restaurant?! It’s not as cool was Genki Sushi in Tokyo but better than Sushi Hub!

Since it’s a sushi train, we pay by the dishes and each colour of the dishes represent a different price. I think we picked out most of the $3-something plates.

The damage!

We have also been trying new local restaurants as well! We went to Burger Bliss for some delicious burgers – they got very yummy fries, and Wings of Glory for some good ol’ chicken wings. We only went to Wings of Glory because I found a Groupon deal, lol.

  • Burger Bliss
  • Wings of Glory

So, taking 10-20 minutes walks throughout the day is highly encouraged by my team at work so I’ve been starting to go on daily walks after my lunch. Now only does it kill time (haha), but it also makes me feel like I’m burning off some calories from my lunch. I work in Footscray and it’s surrounded by very nice graffiti murals.

Dan’s dad also requested us to find a book called The Killer Koala and we tracked it down via an online store. It’s somewhat of a rarity I suppose because very few stocks were available online and most of the ones we found were on Amazon or eBay for almost $100! We got the book for only $30 with free shipping.

Dan has finished reading it and I heard him chuckle a few times throughout the book so I’m keen on reading it as well before we ship it back to Canada for Dan’s dad.

Journal Entry #003

Claire @ Coffee with Claire2 Comments

Monday, December 3rd, 2018

It’s finally summer in Melbourne!

A few days ago, I had a nice steak dinner. Meat out in Australia is super cheap! For two cuts, it was only $11 and it was a pretty decent cut. I mean, I’m not an expert in steaks but can’t beat 2 for $11 and have it tasty.

Last week, I also finished my one-week contract. Originally it had a high potential to extend to a two-week contract but on my last day, they struggled to find any work for me so they didn’t extend. 

Yesterday was a day full of yummy food. I’ve been wanting to learn how to make sushi for the longest time but didn’t want to fork out the money to take cooking classes. My housemate, Tolis, offered to teach me how to make sushi so we went to the marketplace and grabbed the necessary things and sashimi-grade tuna and salmon. 

Unfortunately, I missed out how to make the sushi rice, which is a bummer because that’s the step I would obviously struggle with. Dan and I had a talk the night before and it made me so mad and upset that I couldn’t sleep and when I woke up, I basically felt this sadness and stayed in bed until noon. 

Nonetheless, I got to make my rolls and learn how to cut sashimi.

And yes, we made it in our PJs and I have a Hello Kitty robe.

To top it all off, for dinner, we had a bbq! We didn’t prep too much with it – it was literally just peri peri chicken wings and Tolis made some Greek appie with red peppers.

Today, I went over to Oakleigh, a Greek district and had myself a nice cup of iced vanilla latte from Vanilla (seriously, soooooo good!). I’m normally not a fan of doughnuts but… I had myself an Oreo & cream doughnut from The Oakleigh Doughnut Co.

It’s pretty much the best doughnut I’ve ever had.

Since my contract ended last Thursday, I’ve been having myself super chill days. I played The Sims a lot, lol. 

Tomorrow it’ll be a fairly busy day. One of the HR roles I applied for when I first arrived in Australia finally called back and I’m meeting with them tomorrow for an interview. I guess it’s a good thing because my chances are pretty high since a decent amount of people probably found jobs within a month.

The downside is the commute to Footscray is about an hour but hey, a job is a job. I can probably kill a lot of audiobooks this way too.

I’m also going to email ME tomorrow as well. I’m hoping they could provide an update on the role but I’m thinking it won’t start until January. My only concern is that I don’t want to be a dick and work for a place and then bounce a month or so later… but, if it is a guaranteed role, I do have enough money to last me through December without work… so we’ll see! 

Since I’m in the city tomorrow as well, I’m hoping to finalize the Christmas package I’ll be sending back home. I just need to pick up a t-shirt for my Dad and something for a Mom… and a few random knick-knacks and chocolates for my old colleagues and have it shipped sometime this week.

Celebrating 2 Years

Claire @ Coffee with Claire3 Comments

Last week, Dan and I celebrated our two years anniversary. 

Given what has happened between us, I didn’t want to celebrate our 2 years but Dan pushed for it and said: “whatever happens, it’s still a relationship worth celebrating”. I mean, he’s not wrong… 2 years is worth celebrating.

Since we moved to Australia, we’ve been budgeting and watching our money a bit more closely than we were back at home. Prior to our anniversary, we both agreed to keep it very cheap with no gifts this year. Our original plan was to take a pottery class but we couldn’t find any affordable ones in town and I don’t think Dan wants to spend three hours in class. 

I found a Groupon deal for an All-You-Can-Eat seafood buffet at the Sheraton hotel. It was $99 but works out to be $50 each for dinner, not including drinks yet. I figured that was pretty affordable. 

Let me just say… the seafood buffet was amazeballs! I seriously can’t believe they had AYCE oysters… oysters! I haven’t had raw oysters in ages and was craving them the moment I saw the picture on Groupon. The buffet also had scallops, prawns, crabs, salmon, salads, turkey, and the usual buffet stuff. But, I was all in on the seafood and this was definitely one of the rare meals that I got my money’s worth, lol.

Prior to dinner, I was at home working on some blog stuff and work. I also had an interview as well.

Post interview selfie… because, why not?

We had reservations at 6:30pm so we went into the city to browse and walk a bit. We stopped by Target again to get some umbrellas and Dan wanted socks. We got there half an hour early but they were able to accommodate us right away.

Since we were one of the first tables to arrive, the place was fairly empty. But, the dining area was so, so, so beautiful! It felt like a summer cottage home with the sunlight bathing through.

In no time, we headed towards the buffet and started piling food on our plates.

The first round was purely seafood! I stocked up on oysters (duh), smoked salmon, prawns, mussels and scallops. My least favourite was the prawns… I don’t think I’m a fan of cold prawns.

The second round happened fairly quickly. I went for the usual meat dishes, and topped off with a bit of salad and some more seafood.

I was starting to get full after my second plate but I filled a small plate with a few more things before settling on dessert. I think that since we used Groupon to dine, the waitresses kept on pushing drinks on us so Dan ordered two glasses of wine and I had coke.

The final round was dessert! I’m not a big dessert person but they looked soooo yummy that I had to try some. I think the dessert round was Dan’s favourite, haha.

Dan and I shared some of the desserts so my plate looks a little empty. I loved the chocolate ice cream and the little salted caramel & chocolate tart. Everything else was meh but this is coming from a non-dessert person so don’t take my word for it.

The buffet had a two hour sitting limit and I think we used about 1.45 hours of the 2 hours. I felt so bloated that walking back to the train was hard, haha. 

Fun fact: I got super self-conscious after the buffet that I went to the gym the next day and surprisingly didn’t gain any weight in Melbourne so far! 

To end our anniversary celebration, I got to start my dinosaur book that I’ve been eyeing lately!

#2014BloggerChallenge – Favourite Foods

Claire @ Coffee with Claire9 Comments

I can’t cook. My parents never taught me how to cook, and I don’t blame them for my lack of knowledge, but lets just say, I’ve met guys that cook better than me. I’ll start learning how to cook when I move out, haha. Better late than never!

However, since I don’t cook, I cannot share recipes with you guys. Instead, for this week’s challenge topic, I’ll present to you some of my some of my favourite foods!

Sushi

This is a no-brainer! I love, love, love sushi! Seriously, I can live off sushi for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. In July 2011, when I was overseas, I had salmon sashimi nearly everyday because I’m not a fan of Chinese food. And the sushi is expensive in China – for a plate for sashimi, it costs around 50 RMB ($9 CAD, super cheap in Canadian currency!). I love sashimi, tuna/salmon roll and salmon avocado roll… do you see a trend in salmon? Haha.

Bonus fact: I hate California rolls… I don’t know how people can stand eating that.

Alcohol

I’m a social drinker. I stopped drinking vodka since 2012 so you’re most likely to catch me with a beer in hand instead. The only time I’ll ever consume vodka is probably shots or jager bombs. 

Bonus fact: I’ve been drinking for about ~7-8 years and I have developed NO tolerance to alcohol… so, if you think you know someone’s that is a “lightweight”, well.. I’m a feather weight, or a ‘one shot wonder’, haha. However, there’s a silver lining in this situation: I (or men) spend only very little on drinks for me! I’m a money saver!

Chicken

Who doesn’t love chicken?! I love chicken wings (especially roasted red pepper flavour!), and BBQ chicken from Urban Fare. Honestly, I think I paying someone’s paycheque at Wings or Urban Fare.

Bonus fact: I love chicken, fried or not, but I hate KFC and Church’s Chicken. Last year, I decided to eat Church’s because I had a coupon, and I nearly threw up after that meal. A friend also had Church’s a few months ago and ended up having a chicken’s brain in her meal.. that’s disgusting!

Cultural

I love the fact that Vancouver is a city where you can taste the world from your backyard. Aside from sushi, I love Japanese oysters (baked or raw). My mum and I can feast on that like crazy. I also love Indian food (duuuuuuuur!), especially dosas, butter chicken, naans, and Indian snacks like Bhel Puri, Parle-G biscuits and Indian sweets.

Bonus fact: I love the Indian cuisine (especially Punjabi cuisine), but I’m not a big fan of samosas…

Snacks

I’m a lover of junk food – in fact, my body is probably 90% junk than healthy food… I know, that sounds extremely bad and save your judgement, I don’t wanna hear it (but I am working on improving it!). My Instagram is finnandfriendsgoldfishes… which is named after Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers… holy crap, I don’t know how anyone can hate these crackers. I also love potato chips, and Smarties McFlurries! My favourite chocolates are Hersey Cookies n Creme and Bueno bars.

Bonus fact: Despite the amount of chocolates and candies I eat, I have yet to get a cavity! (Knock on wood!).

Do we share any favourite foods? If not, let me know your favourite food and hopefully, I’ll be openminded enough to try it out 😛