Dream: escape from a mountain

This dream starts at a beach that is like any in Australia. I am walking along the promenade and I look up to see a huge mountain just next to the beach. I don't recognise where I am but I start heading towards the mountain. I turn off the road into a small track which is not signposted, and the track starts to wind up the mountain.

Suddenly I see someone I recognise - a family friend's son that I met many years ago just on a few occasions. He is on a side path and walks towards me, waving. I stop and he says that he wants to climb the mountain too, but he knows a shortcut.

We go towards the side path that he is taking and soon it begins to descend. I am puzzled by the road heading downhill when we are trying to climb the hill, but he tells me to be patient. We come to an impossibly large boulder which blocks the view of everything beyond it. With great difficulty, I climb up the boulder and when I am standing on top, the other side is a crevasse dropping into a dark murky depth. He reaches down and pulls on a rope which is secured to a bolt, then starts to climb down the rope.

I follow him on the rope and we descend slowly, first down the other side of the boulder, then down many other rocks until the sky disappears and we are completely surrounded by darkness. I realise that we have no source of light, and feel rather anxious. Nevertheless, the man I am with is very confident and tells me to be patient again.

With a thud my foot hits something solid. It is the sandy ground - I stand on with my feet on the firm surface and look around in vain, straining to see something. Slowly I make out the shape of the man and he seems to be about a metre away, feeling the rock surface. I shuffle towards him and realise that he is grasping metal anchors in the rock, which serve as a makeshift ladder up the rocks.

Why must we climb up the rocks when we just climbed down them? I think, somewhat confused and angry.

The man is already gone though, so I quickly reach for the same metal anchors, climbing with all fours slowly up the rock. Each anchor is spaced just so that it is quite easy to find.

Suddenly, the anchor I am holding gives way and comes loose in the rock. I feel a sudden overwhelming sense of panic as I am already many many metres from the bottom. I clutch at another anchor, terrified that I will fall to my death. As I pull myself up further, more anchors start to fall away, randomly from any of my limbs but only one at a time so I cling terrified to the rest. I experience a complete utter helplessness and despair, as if my life was coming to an end right there. I cannot see the man anymore, in fact I can make out nothing around me.

Still, I have no choice but to keep climbing, so I persevere even though I am slipping every few movements. After an infinitely long time, I see a light in the distance which is not on top of my head (where the sky should be) but across the way as if from the mouth of a cave. I am excited and start to think about how I can get there. I move my hands and feet sideways to try to edge closer to the light.

Then suddenly everything gives way, I fall and wake up. 

Images from Maggie island

We went to Magnetic Island on a beautifully sunny Saturday. This little island just across the bay from Townsville is lovingly nicknamed Maggie by the locals, and about 2000 people are resident there. It's famous for its secluded beaches and bays, but we didn't get to any of them as we were in the car. We had debated the idea of going on a reef trip but thought it might be too much for 93 year old grandma - it was great as she enjoyed the island as much as we did, and also had a nap halfway through!

Amazing three dimensional clouds seen on the ferry to Maggie

 

 Rock wallabies at Geoffrey Bay - these were a little bit afraid 

 Upside photo - coral washed up from the sea

 Do what the sign says

 Crystal clear water at Alma Bay

Dad accidentally bought these croissants that had to be baked first. Never mind, they were perfect after 10min in the sun.

Idyllic Horseshoe Bay  

 Old man and the sea.

 An abandoned boat at Picnic Bay

The long jetty at Picnic Bay 

I had a strong feeling that I would return to Maggie - maybe later on in the year when I'm doing the other subject. I'd love to stay for the weekend and go explore all the walking trails to the secret beaches! 

Dream: preaching peaches

In this dream I am standing on the pavement with C and her boyfriend M. It looks like a posh suburb - the street is hush quiet, lined with tall trees. The houses are huge and elaborate, each with a long driveway leading up fancy looking gardens.

I understand implicitly that we are out to preach something. We start up one of the driveways and the gate opens in front of us. The house at the end of the driveway looks like Schloss Charlottenburg - a huge white castle like structure. After quite some time we reach the front door and knock on the brass door knockers.

An old lady comes to the door, impossibly frail looking with wispy white hair and extraordinary kyphosis. She is wheezy as she inquires about our presence. M starts saying something about god and his love, my eyes roll back in my head and I wonder why I am tagging along with some religious conversion thing. The old lady seems to listen attentively though, and M goes on enthusiastically.

Then he takes out a peach from his bag, and my eyes are immediately drawn to it. The smooth skin starts to speckle as he touches it, emitting multi coloured lights, gaining in strength as he holds it for a longer period of time. He hands it to the old lady and when she holds it, the rays blast everywhere like it's a strange technicolour dream.

Then I wake up

A fancy dinner at Aria

For our end of year farewell dinner we decided to go somewhere decidedly different to our casual Newtown Thai haunts. Aria was available at short notice and had at least enough vegetarian options for a set menu [one in each course], so Aria it was.

Amuse bouche: buffalo milk ricotta with yellow nectarine 

Just a snippet of perfectly creamy ricotta that just melted in the mouth, accompanied by a little sweet & sour note from the nectarine.

Course one: Burrata with beetroot, oregano and blood plums 
This was visually so striking, with the deep red of the beetroot and plums sandwiching a smooth globe of burrata. Poking the burrata led to cream oozing everywhere, and every bite of this dish was luxurious.

Course two: Slow cooked Cornucopia egg with broccoli, macadamia and black truffle dressing
The broccoli had been split in two, the stems deeply caramelised to a char (almost looking like a bone!) and the florets blanched and refreshed to perfection. The shavings of black truffle were generous and bound the dish together.

 The most amazingly velvety mash that came with our mains. I ate some of this on bread, it was that good.

Pre-dessert: apricot foam with muscato granita.
A perfect palate cleanser to move into the sweets.

Course three: Valrhona chocolate ganache with cherries and warm chocolate doughnuts
All the desserts looked amazing but three out of four at the table opted for this one. The cherry sorbet was an amazing accompaniment to the rich deep chocolate ganache, and the sugar dusted chocolate doughnuts brought the whole decadent dish together.

Raspberries with chantilly cream and meringue.
This was pretty as a picture and light as a cloud, but the chocolate one won hands down.

Petit Fours
So many little nibblies to go with our after dinner coffees.

Aria is really a special occasion place ($135 for 3 courses is pretty steep...) but I was happy to see that they ventured beyond the normal vegetarian options and put some thought into it. It was a beautiful atmospheric place to have dinner overlooking the harbour, the service was impeccable and the presentation of all the dishes befitting the whatever number of hats they happen to have. Now if only I could eat all the desserts...

Dreams: mangos at Circular Quay and a purple dupatta

Mangos at Circular Quay

This dream starts at Circular Quay, in the undercover walkway near the Guylian cafe. I am walking towards the Opera House when I see a tourist looking lost. I stop and ask her if I can help - she is a short Korean girl in her 20s, holding an ipad. She shows me a picture of a blue road sign, saying that she is trying to find this sign. 

I look around with her and think hard - I haven't seen any such sign around there, as most road signs in Sydney are not blue. We go into a shop and ask the shopkeeper who suggests we look in the underground part near Opera bar, so we go there too but we cannot find it. As we come up to road level again, the sun is setting and gorgeous orange rays are cast over the Opera house. I suggest to the girl that she stay and enjoy the sunset instead of looking for the sign, and walk off in the direction of the train station. 

By the time I reach the station it is almost dark. Though in real life one would have to ascend steps / escalators to go onto the platform, there are signs indicating that you have to go downstairs which I find strange even in the dream. I start walking down a tunnel like set of steps, and quickly realise that the steps have crumbled away and are highly unstable. Someone has put up ropes along the side of the steps to help people keep balance as they negotiate the rubble, but lots of people are falling over everywhere. It is so dark in the stairwell it feels like a mine. 

Finally I get down to the bottom of the steps and feel relieved that I am on a platform that looks like a train station platform. It is so dark though that I can barely see where I am going. I slip and fall next to a pile of mango skins, and when I sit up I realise I am surrounded by mango skins, piles of half eaten mango pulp and seeds scattered about everywhere. I wonder what sort of monster has been eating mangos in Circular Quay station. As I stand up again I can hear the whistle of the train approaching in the tunnel. Then my foot slips on a mango skin and I start to fall onto the tracks.

I can hear the train approaching closer and closer as I land with a thud. Then I wake up. 

The purple dupatta

In this dream I am standing at the door of a house I do not recognise. The door is fancy, one of those bi-fold doors that open outwards, rimmed with something golden and shiny. I try the doorknob but it doesn't open. I peek through the glass on the side of the door but I cannot see through. 

I am startled as the door starts to creak open. It is utterly silent around me as the door slowly opens to reveal an alarm panel. The lights are blinking red and green, and I see the alarm is still elevated. I have no idea what the code is.

The next scene I am in a swimming pool that looks like it's part of someone's backyard. It's not clear to me whether this is the house I was just at the front of. The pool is very deep and I am treading water, wondering why a backyard pool is so deep. Suddenly, a purple coloured dupatta is thrown into the pool. I look around but cannot see who threw it - in fact all around the pool there are not even any bushes or anywhere someone can hide. 

I swim towards the dupatta and feel the texture of the material in my hands. It is a bright purple, and as I pull my hand away the colour comes off onto my hand. As I drop it the colour starts to fade from the dupatta and languid streaks appear on the surface of the pool. Slowly the water colour starts to change, and I feel a sense of panic starting to seep in. What is happening?

Then I wake up 

Food: Myanmar

Rice & curry

A "standard" Burmese meal at one of the roadside places consists of whichever curries you fancy from a range of bain maries, a heap of rice and some side dishes. On the whole I found the curries to be very meat focused - even the egg curry was usually in some sort of meat gravy. I always managed to find something to eat though, even if it was just side dishes. There was almost always a vegetable based soup and salad ingredients like raw carrots, cucumber, random leaves.. 

Broad bean, eggplant, dried fishies - at Two Two in Mandalay 

The curries were pretty unique in that they did not resemble the well known Thai or Indian curries, but rather was their own style. Onion and garlic flavours were dominant, and most were not particularly heavy in chilli.

A "fancy" meal at some roadside place in Nyaungshwe.

The curries are in china bowls and the side dishes in glass bowls

The rice was often quite broken and coarse - not the refined stuff we are used to in the West. There was always a mountain of it which helped to offset the heavy oily curries. 

A meal at a random place in Yangon, recommended by the post office lady

Tofu curry and egg curry at Redstar in Nyaungshwe. The green tomato salad was so refreshing.

The rice & curry places usually had a jar full of jaggery balls for dessert. 

Noodles

We saw noodles everywhere in Myanmar. The most popular of these is Shan noodles, interestingly translated as 饵丝 on Chinese menus. 

Shan noodles in Bogyoke Aung San market, Yangon

They can be served in soup or "dry" as here, usually with a heady mix of peanut, chilli and coriander and a squeeze of lime. The noodles are tossed until they are well coated in this mixture and there are usually bits of greens for a textural change. Utterly delicious, never got tired of this.

Plain noodles from a roadside cart 

Shan noodles buried under a pile of vegetables, Pan Cherry teahouse, Mandalay

Thicker Shan noodles in Nyaungshwe, opposite the market

Coconut noodles at Than Lwin guesthouse, Yangon 

Tea house

Teahouses are the best places to while away a few hours watching life go by, but sadly we just weren't in Myanmar long enough to do that very often. At the teahouses Chinese tea is complimentary and often used to wash the cups out, or as a bit of a fill-in drink in between drinks. Usually Burmese tea is the drink of choice, a thick strong brew sweetened with condensed milk. There was also instant coffee, a variety of soft drinks and sometimes) fruit shakes.

One day we were waiting for the bus in Bagan, so we spent the afternoon at Skyworld teahouse. It was interesting to see the dynamics of the teahouse - all the "waitstaff" were boys and girls aged perhaps 10-12, who all answer to a fat owner sitting in a tatty singlet & longyi behind the counter counting money. The regulars are offered cigarettes when they sit down, also brought out by the teaboys/girls. Teacups are brought out with giant metal tongs and deposited unceremoniously in front of you making a small splatter.

A variety of snacks are on offer.

Chapatti with butter and sugar 

Pastries filled with sweet bean paste like 老婆饼

Fried puffs filled with shredded coconut 

Other random food photos

 Fried Shan tofu with radish pickle

Random bus stop purchase of purple sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf which had a very strange taste - it was uncuttable and unchewable. Even chilli didn't help

Pickled tea leaf salad - at Taste Myanmar, Yangon

 A sign in Bagan - who knew good is a country?

Fried kittens? 

The best airline meal ever - Indian veg meal on Singapore airlines. Proper curries separated in little paper cups, a spicy bread, pappadums, yoghurt & pickle, and even milk burfi to finish the meal! 

Food: December

Breakfast with Gwyneth (what a inner west yuppie name) at Bread & Circus. This cafe is so bright and airy that it feels healthy sitting there among the produce scattered about - there was a basket of peaches and a box of pumpkins just next to our table. Along with the healthy theme I had this kale & quinoa dish which is quite simply done with chilli, garlic and onion, topped with a fried egg and some blanched spinach. I was so pleased with the simplicity of this that I made it the next week for a Christmas party. 

Sherry marinated globe artichokes with ancient grains, heirloom carrots, goats curd & beets from Bowery lane. What a mouthful - would never remember this as more than just "artichokes". I've never cooked this vegetable so have no idea what is involved but it looks time consuming. Each component was quite small and not particularly overwhelming. However when combined together the flavours were much more interesting and palate challenging.

Pandan pudding with rhubarb compote from Yulli's. We came here for a mega vegetarian dinner and practically ate everything on the menu including 3 of the desserts. This was the prettiest of them all. After dessert we had to have a second serve of gluten free moneybags just because they were black.

How I love that Sushi Masa is in my apartment block. They do simple things so well, such as the well executed kakiage udon, a cake of grated vegetable tempura with just the right amount of rubble, atop fat chewy udon noodles and a perfectly clear headed broth. They don't have many vegetarian options on the menu (I've eaten them all) but this one is a winner.

A random after work dinner at Basil with pizza, salad and nachos. Eating with vegans is easy at Basil.

90s nightmare from Brewtown. I have eaten the polenta dish here way too many times, and since they changed it to pairing with tomatoes I decided to try this mishmash which had a cute name. This was a solidly filling meal with marinated vegetables (eggplant, capsicum and field mushrooms) on pesto toast with spicy white bean mash and parmesan. I didn't eat out in the 90s enough (high school = Maccas) to know why it's called the 90s nightmare though.

Look at this pretty thing, a passionfruit curd cronut. Post nights breakfast at Brewtown usually involves several cronut rounds where a single cronut is cut into quarters and consumed by all the medical staff present... before ordering another round of one single donut. We would really order all of them at the same time, except the service at Brewtown is absolutely atrocious and this is our little game to get them back (immature I know..)

Smoked mushroom and tempeh burger from Veggie Patch Diner. It is amazing that the guys behind Veggie Patch van have opened up on this corner of Five ways (I really hope they make it!!) This burger was just so flavoursome and it's hard to imagine even the most hardcore carnivore wouldn't enjoy this. One can choose from sides such as sweet potato fries (the flat crinkly kind rather than chips) and a variety of luscious salads, here I had roast pumpkin and green bean salad.

In the month of December I was at Mary's for shroom burger three times. That's how awesome it is. I love everything from the soft sweet bun to the melty cheese to the garlicky mushroom, even the wilty lettuce. If only there was a quiet section so you could hear what your dining companions are saying.. but I guess that's what the cemetery across the road is for. 

Refreshing affogatos on a hot sunny afternoon from Gnome, with some damn amazing vanilla bean icecream.

Vegetarian dumplings from Alchemy in Surry Hills. What does a vegetarian eat in a Polish restaurant? Why, deep fried dumplings (with mushroom & sauerkraut and potato & cheese) served with sour cream and chives, of course! The waitress was rather confused when I said no to the bacon that usually comes with these dumplings, hmm...

Ricotta gnocchi with caramelised figs in a cream sauce from  Salt Pepper Nutmeg. This place surprisingly surpassed all expectations for a suburban restaurant - the gnocchi were featherlight, the figs lusciously sweet and the pesto balanced the heavy cream based sauce perfectly. A hidden gem in Roseville for sure.

When my friend's mum found out I had to work nights for a week starting on boxing day, she gave me a whole bunch of Lankan curries - dal, butter beans, cashew and eggplant. I just added some kale, rice, roti, yoghurt and pickle - an amazing meal that reminded me of why I have to visit the subcontinent again soon.

 Last but not least, when I got to work on boxing day night, this is what I found in the office - lube next to mince pies. Yes... this is where I work.