Oh how the time is just flying by! In February we went back to Australia for two weeks. On the day we left Toronto it was -20 (-28 with wind chill) and when we got off the plane in Sydney it was 30 degrees! What a crazy temperature difference...
In sunny Australia...
It was actually our first Valentine's day together in person. We celebrated with a group of friends at a suburban Chinese restaurant - all of us not believing in hallmark birthdays, but since the Australian Barney is still alive I had to make this sourdough heart to share with everyone. We clandestinely ate it under the table before the food came!
We visited my friend the cellist from my old string quartet, and together we played Mendelssohn's piano trio no. 1 in D minor and a bit of the Beethoven Archduke piano trio, my favourite. We made this fruit salad for dinner - how I adore Australian summer fruit!
We went up to the Gold Coast to visit my music friend and her husband, and we spent a few days playing music there - some Bach, the Beethoven violin sonatas, and some 2 piano music. This Queensland yoghurt with mango is just excellent.
She made us this cake on the last day, and dusted it with icing sugar and paper cut outs - how smart!
Then I made the same cake (Claudia Roden's orange cake) and decorated it with some mango for my dad's 70th birthday! For his birthday, S and I prepared a musical gift of Beethoven's Spring sonata and the traditional Chinese piece The Butterfly Lovers.
A couple of extraordinary tomatoes we ate from my dad's garden.
The second week we were in Australia, we stayed in Newcastle. My dad and his partner came up one day for lunch and here we are having whole roasted barramundi with a selection of Chinese veggies all from my dad's garden.
Long term readers will recall that I have a close music friend in Newcastle with whom I played duets all throughout COVID. She put on a big dinner for us with roast lamb, sauerkraut, cauliflower & cheese, roast potatoes & pumpkin. It was such a feast! She's turning 80 this year, and she is just incredible!
Our last dinner in Australia - home made pan fried dumplings, and a big pot of "Russian" soup at my dad's.
Back in Toronto...
It was freezing... and we continued our Manga Mondays tradition. Here the dish was natto, which is a kind of fermented soybean. An acquired taste, I must say. We had it with some salmon and tofu miso soup, and a simple side of broccoli stalks stir fried with daikon. Everything was more delectable than the natto!
Another Manga Monday... pork katsu with rice, highly non traditional sides of bean sprouts and heirloom tomato. We baked the katsu instead of deep frying it and it turned out really well!
Another day, we had wonton noodle soup for dinner.. it's just so cold, it's soup weather.
Finally, here is a beautiful loaf of shokupan, or Japanese milk bread I made with my sourdough. I have been experimenting with plant based milks, and I'm excited to report that this milk bread worked out really great with oat milk.
The curveball...
My dad's current Guide Dog puppy is called Wendy. She's actually 8 years old, so not quite a puppy. She was working as a guide dog but the visually impaired person did not see that she was getting too overweight. Hence she has taken a leave of absence from her work to do an intensive weight loss program at my dad's. She is quite adorable and loves eating.
I'm sending this to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings, who hosts the monthly In My Kitchen series - Thanks Sherry!!
